Temple Lodge No. 4, A. F. & A. M.

The lodge's first worshipful master had already planted Masonry in another country. George Fisher was born Djordje Ribar in Hungary in 1795 to Serbian parents, left church school to fight in the Serbian Revolution, and reached America in 1814 as a redemptioner, escaping his ship near Philadelphia and taking a new name. In Mexico in 1825 he helped found the first York Rite lodge. His Anahuac customhouse of 1831 angered colonists, and their threats drove him to Matamoros. He later held civic posts in San Francisco, became consul to Greece in 1870, and died there in 1873.

What the plaque says

Temple Lodge No. 4, A. F. & A. M. This Masonic Lodge traces its history to the early days of the Republic of Texas, when the seat of government was located in the newly founded city of Houston. Formally chartered on May 10, 1838, Temple Lodge was the fourth Masonic organization established in Texas, and the first to be established in the new Republic. It was chartered by the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas, which had been formed from the three existing lodges, all of which had been chartered originally by the Louisiana Grand Lodge. Playing leading roles in the organization's formation and development were many noted Texas patriots and statesmen. Early colonist George Fisher was named first worshipful master, with San Jacinto veteran Richard Bache as secretary and future Governor Francis R. Lubbock as first junior deacon. Temple Lodge held its regular meetings in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol in downtown Houston, where statesmen Anson Jones and Mirabeau Lamar were in frequent attendance. In July 1838, Temple Lodge conducted the first Masonic burial in the Republic of Texas for State Supreme Court Chief Justice James Collingsworth. Since its establishment Temple Lodge No. 4 has reflected the Masonic values and teachings of its founders. (1983)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 4.8 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• The Menil Collection — 5.2 mi
  John and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
• Rothko Chapel — 5.3 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 5.8 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.

More markers nearby

• Teas Nursery Company — 2.3 mi
• Bellaire — 2.6 mi
• Texan Capture of Mexican Dispatches (San Jacinto) — 2.6 mi
• Southside Place Park — 2.7 mi