Kerrville Lodge No. 697, A.F. & A.M.

Texas Masons widened their giving in the twentieth century. For the Masonic family they ran the Masonic Home and School in Fort Worth, the Home for Aged Masons in Arlington and the Scottish Rite Dormitory for Women at the University of Texas. Charities open to the public included the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children in Dallas and the Shriners Burns Institute in Galveston. Like other fraternal orders, Masonry lost members after the early 1960s: from the 1961 high of 245,000, Texas membership fell to 201,000 by the end of 1985, in 960 working lodges.

What the plaque says

Kerrville Lodge No. 697, A.F. & A.M. Organized by Masons affiliated with Rising Star Lodge in nearby Center Point, Kerrville Lodge No. 697 was chartered on December 11, 1890. The 21 charter members elected Ed Smallwood as their first Worshipful Master. A two-story stone building erected by Charles Schreiner served as the institution's headquarters until a second structure was acquired in 1927. Construction of the current building began in December 1972, and it was formally dedicated in February 1974. The Kerrville Masonic Lodge has served the community with many programs. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Schreiner Mansion — 2.4 mi
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Treue der Union Monument — 17 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 21 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — 23 mi
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.

More markers nearby

• First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Kerrville — 0.5 mi
• Gatlin Site — 0.6 mi
• Old Spanish Trail — 0.7 mi
• The Famous Door Café — 1.8 mi