Greenwood Masonic Lodge #779
Decatur, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1895, members of the fraternal organization, the Freemasons, petitioned the most worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas to establish a Masonic Lodge in their community. The lodge was chartered on December 4, 1895, and found its home on the second floor of the wood building at 147 Main Street. A bank initially occupied the first floor as evidenced by the intact vault still on the property. The lodge was accessed by an exterior wooden staircase, which was replaced by a metal one, but the original wooden walls and ceiling remain. The building survived two devastating town fires and a cyclone in 1909. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1895, local Freemasons petitioned the Grand Lodge of Texas and were chartered that December, making their home on the second floor of a wooden building at 147 Main Street above a bank whose vault still remains. Reached first by an exterior wooden staircase, later replaced in metal, the lodge kept its original wooden walls and ceiling and survived two town fires and a 1909 cyclone.
Why it matters
Fraternal lodges like this one were civic anchors of Gilded Age Texas towns, and this weathered survivor earned recognition as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
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