Before the Temple · 1891–1929
A gas explosion at Lawlor’s Cafe
1923
In August 1923 a worker named Dumas Pratt was lighting the water heater at Lawlor’s Cafe on the block when escaping gas exploded, burning his eyes. The injury made the papers.
The episode is a reminder that the corner had a working commercial life years before the temple: cafes, groceries, and shops were already serving the neighborhood that the lodge would soon anchor.
The source
Source: Houston press, Aug. 8, 1923 (research corpus, timeline record). A page scan for this entry has not yet been staged; the citation traces to the research archive.