Livestone Lodge No. 152, F. & A. M.
Grand Prairie, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originally built east of Grand Prairie near the African American community known as "The Line," Livestock Lodge No. 152, Free and Accepted Masons, was granted a charter on July 24, 1903 by the Prince Hall Masons of Texas. In 1944, the lodge building was moved to the Dalworth community. The site, in one of the few areas where African Americans were allowed to buy property, cost $200. As at "The Line," Livestone members, leaders in the African-American community of Grand Prairie, have continued to provide a center for community gatherings, education, and public meetings. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chartered in 1903 by the Prince Hall Masons of Texas, this African American Masonic lodge was first built near the Grand Prairie community known as "The Line." In 1944 the lodge moved its building to the Dalworth community, buying a $200 lot in one of the few areas where Black residents were then permitted to own property. Its members, leaders in the local Black community, kept the lodge as a center for gatherings, education, and public meetings.
Why it matters
Under segregation, Black fraternal lodges were vital civic anchors, providing self-governance, mutual aid, and community space where other institutions excluded African Americans.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mount Olive Baptist Church
Arlington, TX
In the summer of 1897, a small group of African American residents led by the Rev. Mr. Squires founded Mount Olive Baptist Church, first on Indiana Street in Arlington. From just sixteen members in 1966, the congregation grew explosively as Arlington boomed — passing 400 by 1976, 3,500 by 1986, and reaching 10,000 by 1997 — moving through ever-larger sanctuaries and building an active community outreach ministry along the way. In 1997 it marked a full century of service.
The Hill
Arlington, TX
"The Hill" was the only part of Arlington set aside for its African American residents, emerging in the 1890s on former Thomas family land and taking shape after Edward F. Wilkerson subdivided his addition in 1907. Churches like Mt. Olive Baptist and Armstrong Chapel AME anchored spiritual and social life, while grocery stores, clubs, restaurants, and a county school for Black children built a vibrant community. The last segregated school, named for Booker T. Washington and built in 1953, closed with integration in the 1960s, and the nearby park was named for principal George Stevens.
Booker T. Washington School
Arlington, TX
Rooted in Arlington's first Black school of the 1890s, this institution educated generations of African American children in the neighborhood known as The Hill, with the Church of God in Christ lending classroom space as needed. Teachers George Stevens and Gloria Echols lived among their students, and Stevens served as principal for decades; graduates continued on to I.M. Terrell High School in Fort Worth. A modern facility opened in 1954, named for educator Booker T. Washington, until Arlington's 1965 desegregation closed the school.
Bear Creek Community
Irving, TX
Settled in the 1850s within the old Robertson's Colony, this stretch of North Texas prairie became something new after the Civil War, when freedmen moved in and reunited families that slavery had torn apart. Jim Green, the first Black landowner here, bought his acreage in 1878, and neighbors soon followed, organizing the Shady Grove Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and a Freedom School on land Green donated. For generations the Bear Creek community farmed, worshipped, and taught its children here, until the sprawl of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex and its airport all but erased the settlement.