Building the Temple · 1930

The temple opens

Dec 1930

The lodge planned its formal opening for December 31, 1930, its twentieth birthday: in October the Chronicle reported that the temple “will be opened formally December 31 on the birthday of the lodge,” in “the combined birthday and opening celebration.” Grand Lodge returns that year recorded 855 members; the completed cost of the building is carried in the lodge’s own history at $110,700.

The building’s first city directory row reads simply “1100 Masonic Temple,” listing the lodge and its Eastern Star chapter. No newspaper account of the opening ceremony itself has yet been found; the papers of December 30, 1930 to January 2, 1931 are where it should be.

The source

Photograph of a tilted 1930-31 city directory page listing Harvard Street householders, under an ice cream company advertisement.
Houston city directory, 1930–31, p. 2005 (photograph of the page): the Harvard Street listing, “1100 Masonic Temple / Reagan Lodge No 1037 / A F & A M / Hts Chapter 258 O E S.”

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Also: The planned opening: Houston Chronicle, Oct. 19, 1930, p. 25. The completed cost: the lodge’s own history.