Sampson Masonic Lodge No. 231 A. F. & A. M.

The lodge's home since 1951 sits in a town named for a riverbank. Highlands, also called Elena, got its name because the east bank of the San Jacinto River stood higher than the west when the town began. It was a station on the Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western Railway by 1908, gained a post office in 1929 and incorporated in 1930, though that charter was later voided and a 1956 attempt failed. Population fell from 350 to 200 in the 1930s, then jumped as military and war-plant workers arrived; by 1948 it was 3,000, with seventy-five businesses.

What the plaque says

Sampson Masonic Lodge No. 231 A. F. & A. M. Henry Sampson (1823-1885) moved to Houston in 1842 from South Carolina and affiliated with the Holland Masonic Lodge in Houston. Along with other leadership roles, Sampson served both as the worshipful master of the Holland Lodge and grand master of the Grand Lodge of Texas. In 1859, sixteen men submitted a petition to grand master Sampson to begin a new lodge in Lynchburg, and when the charter was granted on June 16, 1859, the members chose to name their lodge in his honor. The members met at a log cabin constructed specifically for lodge use on property that belonged to the lodge's first worshipful master, M.M. Michan. This first lodge was destroyed by fire, and when subsequent lodges in Lynchburg were destroyed by hurricanes in 1875, 1877 and 1900, the lodge was moved to Crosby. In 1951 Sampson Lodge again relocated to 114 Avenue D in Highlands, and the lodge's activities began to reflect the importance of community outreach. Sampson Lodge recognizes outstanding community members with the Community Builder Award, and members participate in Highlands clean up day, the Highlands jamboree and parade, the lighting of the community christmas tree, and the annual Rotarian fish fry. In 1999, the lodge began hosting an annual brisket fundraiser, and proceeds fund numerous local charities and organizations. Sampson Masonic Lodge No. 231 A.F. & A.M. celebrated its sesquicentennial year in 2009, and continues to preserve, promote, and diffuse the priciples of free masonry throughout its community. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 4.6 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Space Center Houston — 18 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 19 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Emancipation Park — 19 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.

More markers nearby

• Booker T. Washington High School — steps away
• Lynch's Ferry — 1.7 mi
• White Cemetery — 2.9 mi
• Hannah Este Burnet — 3.1 mi