Research · the state of the record

Open Questions, Sources, and Corrections

  1. The photographic record
  2. Open questions, sources, corrections
  3. The building’s names
  4. The numbers

Thirteen documentary questions remain open. Each is listed with the route most likely to close it.

  1. The 1935 foreclosure instrument and the lender’s name Houston National Bank is the probable holder, inferred from its 1939 sale. Route: the Harris County Clerk’s deed and deed-of-trust books for 1930–35; trustee’s-sale notices in the Post and Chronicle for July–August 1935; Houston National Bank’s own records, if George H. Jenkins of the lodge proves to be the bank’s George Howard Jenkins.
  2. A dedication account for December 31, 1930 The Chronicle announced “the combined birthday and opening celebration on December 31.” No account has been found. Route: page-by-page reading of the Post and Chronicle for December 30, 1930 to January 2, 1931, not keyword search; the Houston Press morgue by date.
  3. The size of the 1930 site, and the south half of Lot 17 The Chronicle of March 23, 1930 gives the lodge’s site as 225 feet on Harvard by 132 on Eleventh; a “vacant lot 100 by 150 feet” once quoted from the same announcement has not been found; the 1939 sale gave 200 feet; the 1985 declaration includes the south half of Lot 17. Route: the Post-Dispatch page of March 23, 1930 (p. 21); the deed chain for Lots 13–17, Block 199.
  4. The exile hall at Eighth and Harvard Probable address 801 Harvard (June 1941). Route: city directories 1935–48 for 801 Harvard; Sanborn sheets for the 800 block.
  5. Which building at the corner housed the Woodmen, the Odd Fellows, the Adventist school, and the armory, and which shops on Eleventh were in the temple Candidates: the separate commercial buildings of about 1930 at 215 E. 11th (Lots 11 and 12, Block 199) and 220 E. 11th, though both stand at the Cortlandt end of the block, not at Harvard. Route: the 1925–37 Sanborn sheets for Block 199 (on microfilm at the Harris County Archives; the free 1919 sheet predates the temple and shows only dwellings at the corners); the 1930s directories under Woodmen of the World and I.O.O.F.; photographs of both buildings compared with the 1940 inspection photograph.
  6. Two lodge-record conflicts Whether J. F. Helms (his 1932 obituary) or J. M. French (the Grand Lodge returns) was the lodge’s first Worshipful Master, and whether L. R. Hayes was Master in 1936–37 (the lodge notices) or 1937–38 (the 2010 marker). Route: the Grand Lodge of Texas Proceedings for 1911 and 1936–38.
  7. Where the first hall stood Notices from December 1916 place a “new Masonic Hall, Harvard and Eleventh” in use, but the Sanborn sheet corrected to June 1919 shows only frame dwellings at all four corners of the intersection. Route: the 1925–37 Sanborn sheets for the Heights (Volume 7, microfilm at the Harris County Archives); the lodge’s minute books.
  8. The chain of title before 1964, and what the 1986 and 1987 deeds conveyed The county’s online deed index (from 1960) gives the owners from 1964: Certified Credit Corp., International Fidelity Insurance (1964), Walter G. Cook (1965), probably Eva T. Orr (1975), Sullivan Building Co. (1977), the Godbolds (1977–78), “Harvard House” (1979), Kent J. Allen and Tompkins Capital Management (1986), Hardin Savings & Loan (1987), and Harvard Place Inc (1992, from Donald L. Frame and others, MeritBanc and the RTC as receiver, with Quest Star Bank as lender). The instruments themselves have not been read. Route: copies of the 1964–1992 instruments; the Clerk’s pre-1960 deed books for 1935–64.
  9. The declaration’s upper-floor plats The recorded declaration (Harris County File No. K060751, Condominium Records Vol. 152, p. 51) gives fourteen units, the declarant (Harvard House, a joint venture of T. S. Terry and Richard Collier, Trustee), the lienholder and the association’s name. Its plat sheets for floors 2–4 are missing from the copies seen. Route: a certified copy from the Clerk.
  10. H. C. Thomas Sr.’s “A Brief History of Reagan Lodge” Route: the lodge’s Historian; the Texas Historical Commission’s marker application file for marker 16433, which almost certainly reproduces it.
  11. The 1972–81 occupancy, and the January 1972 cornerstone notice What the Grand Lodge’s “cornerstone ceremonies … on the corner of 11th and Harvard” dedicated is unknown. Route: the Grand Lodge Proceedings for 1972; the Houston History Research Center’s directory run, 1965–89; Cole’s criss-cross directories by the telephone numbers in the 1981–86 advertisements.
  12. Whether George H. Jenkins of the lodge and George Howard Jenkins the banker were one man Route: the May 1945 obituary in full; the 1930 and 1940 censuses; the bank’s officer lists in its published statements.
  13. A second period photograph Route: the Houston Post morgue by story folder; the Chronicle’s 1968–80 negatives; the Roos Photographs (MSS 0156) and the MSS 0229 remainder at the Julia Ideson Building; Reagan High School yearbooks 1930–35; the 1980 and 1983 National Register survey photographs; the lodge’s 1948 dedication program.

Sources

Every dated fact on this site traces to one of the following: the Houston Post (styled the Post-Dispatch from August 1924 to January 1932), the Houston Chronicle, and other Texas newspapers, read on newspapers.com, NewsBank, and the Portal to Texas History; the Grand Lodge of Texas Proceedings, whose annual returns supply the membership figures; Morrison & Fourmy Houston city directories, photographed at the Houston History Research Center; the 1950 federal census, Enumeration District 263-139; the July 1964 drawings of the existing building by Wirtz, Calhoun, Tungate & Jackson, Commission 64-08, held privately; the condominium declaration recorded in 1985 (Harris County File No. K060751) and the Harris County Appraisal District roll; the Texas Historical Commission’s marker file and Atlas; the City of Houston’s historic-district inventories, ordinances and design guidelines; FDIC institution records; and the published histories of Reagan Lodge No. 1037 and of Houston Heights. Where a clipping has been read only in transcript, the text says so. Each source image is shown as scanned, cropped or levelled at most; where only a digitally restored or re-typeset copy survives, its caption says so, and quotations are taken from the scans or transcripts, never from a restored copy.

Corrections to the first edition

The first edition of this site was published in July 2026. Reviews in September and October 2026 produced this second edition. The corrections to the first edition:

Distance and direction of the 1948 hall (half a mile north; the first edition had both the distance and the direction wrong, in eleven places). Cause and place of the 1941 superintendent's death (heart attack, probably at the exile hall). J. W. Chandler's Grand Master term (1968). The pre-1930 hall's construction ("frame" withdrawn; the one description of it, as brick, is known only from a transcript). The 1940 armory photograph (not this building). The 1943 lease story and photograph (added). Lester A. Miller's relation to Home Life (its general manager). The formal opening (planned for December 31, 1930, the lodge's birthday). James F. Helms (died at 65; secretary from about 1916). The tax-credit framing of the 1982 conversion (the age-based credits excluded residential property, and the building was never a certified historic structure). The historic-district status (inside the district and, under the city's 2010 ordinance, a contributing structure; the period of significance runs into the 1940s). The 1968–69 Worshipful Masters (York Rite officers, removed). The unit count (fourteen, numbered 1–12, 14, and 15, per the recorded 1985 declaration and the county roll). Southwestern Fidelity's offices (3617 Montrose by September 1956; the 1957 lease ad does not say the company was leaving). The 1951 addition (the story names neither Lester A. Miller nor any New York career). The 1964 drawings (the sheets photographed show the existing building). Several images: two "restored" images contained invented details and have been replaced by the scans themselves, and other restored copies are now labelled as such. The Bawcom generations, the OES 258 address change, the Providence temple's vacancy, and a dozen smaller dates and sums.