Houston, Harris County
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is a fraternal organization that has been in Texas since 1838. After the City of Houston Heights was incorporated in 1896, it did not take long for members of existing Odd Fellows lodges to settle there. In 1905, a group of Odd Fellows residing in Houston Heights petitioned the Grand Lodge of Texas to charter a lodge in their area. As the Houston Heights area grew, so too did the lodge, becoming one of the most active Odd Fellows lodges in the Houston area. They boasted 43 members in their first year-end report. Members included William G. Love, first mayor of Houston Heights and the namesake of Love Elementary School; Hugh Cook Colley, noted civil servant; and George Hawkins, one of the first Houstonians to own an automobile. At first, the lodge rented meeting space in the Wallace & Johnson building on 19th at Ashland. In 1906, members of the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias jointly built “Fraternal Hall” on 12th at Yale, but it was destroyed by an electrical fire in 1911. For the next dozen years, the lodge met in a room over member Fred Dexter’s general store on 17th at Rutland. In February 1923, the Heights Odd Fellows Hall Association purchased a lot on 14th just east of Heights Blvd. and began construction of a two-story building, which was dedicated on April 28, 1923. The first floor contains offices, informal spaces, and a kitchen; the formal lodge meeting room is upstairs. The exterior of the building features a variegated brick veneer with door and window openings accented by contrasting brick trim. Decorative features such as roof brackets on the front of the building and exposed rafter ends along the sides echo the many craftsman-style bungalows in the Houston Heights. Today, the Odd Fellows still host regular meetings in the same building that has served them for a century. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2021