Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 2144
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized in 1880, the fraternal organization was an active force in Fort Worth's black community during the early years of the twentieth century. Associated with a national order that had been charted in 1843, the local lodge supported various charities and conducted seminars and professional business training sessions. Lodge members built this structure in 1926 and held their meetings on the second floor until they disbanded in 1937. It stands as one of the few reminders of the original black business district in Fort Worth. (1984)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1880 under a national order chartered in 1843, this lodge of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows became an active pillar of Fort Worth's Black community in the early twentieth century. Its members funded charities and offered seminars and business-training sessions that helped build economic self-reliance. They raised this building in 1926 and met on its second floor until disbanding in 1937, leaving it as one of the few surviving landmarks of the city's original Black business district.
Why it matters
It documents the Black fraternal organizations that provided mutual aid, education, and economic uplift in the era of segregation, and preserves a rare trace of a lost Black business district.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church
Fort Worth, TX
Organized about 1870 by a pioneer circuit rider and a handful of settlers, this became the oldest and largest African Methodist Episcopal congregation in Fort Worth. Members met in homes until they built on this site after purchasing it in 1878, and the following year adopted the name Allen to honor Richard Allen, a formerly enslaved man who became the first bishop of the A.M.E. Church. Across more than a century and dozens of pastors, the congregation played a central role in the city's growth.
Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church
Fort Worth, TX
Built between 1912 and 1914, this Tudor Gothic Revival sanctuary served one of Fort Worth's African American Methodist congregations during a period of growth for Black urban churches across the South. It was designed by William Sidney Pittman, a pioneering Black architect and the son-in-law of Booker T. Washington. Its tower and stained-glass windows reflect the ambition of the congregation that raised it.
Greater Saint James Baptist Church
Fort Worth, TX
Founded in 1895 by the Rev. J. Francis Robinson and members of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church, this congregation first gathered in Fort Worth's YMCA before raising its own home. Worshipers held services in the basement from 1913 until the Gothic Revival sanctuary — red brick trimmed with cast stone and art glass — was finished in 1918. It stands as a monument to a Black community building lasting institutions in the segregation-era South.
I. M. Terrell High School
Fort Worth, TX
When Fort Worth opened its first free public school for Black children in 1882, it began a decades-long institution that would grow far beyond its humble East Ninth Street start. Isaiah Milligan Terrell, one of the city's first Black teachers, shaped the school as principal until 1915, when he left to lead what is now Prairie View A&M University. In 1921 the school was named in his honor, and it moved to its long-standing 18th Street home in 1938. It remained the anchor of Black education in Fort Worth through the segregation era.