Masonic Home and School of Texas

The people who lived here left a longer record than the building does. Wikipedia says Blake R. Van Leer was the home's only boy in 1909 and went on to become president of Georgia Tech and a civil rights advocate. The 1930s football teams, the Mighty Mites, became the subject of Jim Dent's 2007 book Twelve Mighty Orphans and a 2021 film, and one player, Hardy Brown, spent ten seasons in the NFL. The school closed in 2005, which Wikipedia attributes to funding lost after a $6.9 million settlement of sexual abuse claims.

What the plaque says

Masonic Home and School of Texas The Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Texas, organized in 1837 in the Republic of Texas, was granted a charter by the new State of Texas on April 28, 1846. Among the stated purposes of the organization was support of education and charitable causes. At its 1885 annual meeting, the Grand Lodge appointed a committee to plan a "Masonic Widows and Orphans Home." Calling for bids from Texas lodges the following year, the Grand Lodge accepted the offer of Fort Worth Lodge No. 148 in 1888 for 200 acres of land and $5,000 toward building costs. Construction of the institution's buildings at this site began in 1898. A special Texas & Pacific Railroad excursion train brought Masons and visitors to a cornerstone leveling ceremony on June 7, 1899, and the first building was completed later that year. Dr. Frank Rainey of Austin was named superintendent. Known as the "Masonic Home and School of Texas," the facility included buildings designed by noted architects Wiley G. Clarkson of Fort Worth and Herbert M. Greene of Dallas. The Masonic Home Independent School District was formed by the State Board of Education in 1913, and by 1930 more than 450 students were being cared for and educated here. Under terms of an agreement reached in 1911, Masonic widows were transferred to the new home for aged Masons in Arlington. Over the years the mission of the home to care for children of Texas Masons was expanded to offer educational opportunities to additional relatives of Masons, as well as to other children sponsored by Texas lodges. The school continues a legacy of excellence in education. The campus was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district in 1992. (1999)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tarrant County Courthouse — 4.5 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 — 5.6 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 — 5.6 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 — 6.8 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

• Meadowbrook Methodist Church — 2.5 mi
• James E. Guinn School — 2.9 mi
• WBAP-TV - Channel 5, First Television Station in Texas — 3.0 mi
• Baker Funeral Home — 3.0 mi