The 111th Engineers’ Armory

By November 1940 the press was calling the corner the “111th Engineers’ Armory.” Company F of the 111th Engineers, Houston’s own company of the 36th Division, was home-stationed here; Major General Birkhead inspected the men at the armory that December, two weeks after the regiment entered federal service. The Texas Defense Guard drilled in their place once the regiment shipped out.

The same year, the exiled lodge bought the corner of Heights Boulevard and Sixteenth from Dr. T. G. Synnott for $3,600, the site of its future hall. Both institutions were preparing, in their own ways, for what was coming.