HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Fort Worth Elks Lodge 124

Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Designed by Fort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick (1888-1964) and built in 1927-28, this was the headquarters of the Fort Worth Elks Lodge and served as a residence for visiting Elks members until purchased by the Fort Worth Y.W.C.A. in January 1955. Featuring Georgian Revival style elements, the five-story structure on a raised basement is of steel construction with brick and cast stone veneer, metal balustrades, and shallow-relief detail. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -1986.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Prominent Fort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick designed this five-story Georgian Revival building, erected in 1927-28 as the headquarters of Elks Lodge 124 and lodging for visiting members. Built of steel with brick and cast-stone veneer, metal balustrades, and shallow-relief detail, it reflects the confident civic architecture of the 1920s. In 1955 the Fort Worth Y.W.C.A. purchased the building for its own use.

Why it matters

The structure documents both the golden age of American fraternal orders and, in its later life, the institutional presence of the Y.W.C.A. in a growing Texas city.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • ยท Wyatt C. Hedrick

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Fort Worth Library

Fort Worth, TX

At the turn of the 20th century, cities across America won free public libraries by tapping the fortune of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who gave away tens of millions to build them. When a Fort Worth woman asked him for "the price of a good cigar," he answered with $50,000, and paired with local gifts of money and land, the city's first library opened on this site in 1901. Its first librarian was also a leader in the parks and art movements of the era, reflecting how libraries anchored civic and cultural life.

Beth-el Congregation

Fort Worth, TX

Reform Jewish life in Fort Worth began in 1879 with a Hebrew Benevolent Society Sabbath school and home services, gaining momentum around 1900 under Henry Gernsbacher. In 1902 forty-three people gathered to found Beth-El Congregation, electing Sam Levy president, and after years of borrowed rooms and visiting student rabbis they built a temple in 1908 and a larger one on this site in 1919. Fire destroyed that building in 1946, and the rebuilt Beth-El Temple was dedicated in 1949.

Woman's Club of Fort Worth

Fort Worth, TX

In 1923, women from eleven social and study circles, some dating back before 1900, merged into the Woman's Club of Fort Worth under the leadership of Miss Anna Shelton, its first president. The charter members first gathered in a house donated by Etta O. Newby before the growing club acquired buildings of its own. Its members carried on civic, charitable, and educational work and built a Texana library, and by 1975 the club counted some 3,000 members.

Florence Shuman Hall

Fort Worth, TX

Named for a charter member of the Fort Worth Woman's Club, this building began as a 1905 cottage rebuilt in 1910 by civic leader W. R. Edrington. The Woman's Club, formed in 1923, purchased the house the next year as a home for its committees devoted to civic improvement.