Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 2144

The order exists because a white fraternity said no. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, founded in Baltimore in 1819, refused to admit Black men or let them form their own lodges. Black Odd Fellows led by Peter Ogden instead partnered with an English body, the Grand United Order, whose first American lodge opened in New York City. It became one of the most important Black mutual-aid societies, helping pay for burial, sickness, disability and widowhood. In 1858 it created the Household of Ruth so that women could take part.

What the plaque says

Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 2144 Organized in 1880, this fraternal organization was an active force in Fort Worth's Black community during the early years of the twentieth century. Associated with a national order that had been chartered in 1843, the local lodge supported various charities and conducted seminars and professional business training sessions. Lodge members built this structure in 1926 and held their meetings on the second floor until they disbanded in 1937. It stands as one of the few reminders of the original Black business district in Fort Worth. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tarrant County Courthouse — 0.4 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 2.2 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 2.5 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 2.6 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.

More markers nearby

• General William Jenkins Worth (1794-1849) — 0.2 mi
• Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church — 0.3 mi
• Ephraim Merrill Daggett — 0.3 mi
• Fort Worth Library — 0.3 mi