Masonic Widows and Orphans Home Historic District

Set in southeast Fort Worth, this 206-acre campus served as the Masonic Widows and Orphans Home, later known as the Masonic Home and School of Texas. The historic buildings stand on the eastern half of the property, arranged around a large quadrangle with a great lawn. Most are red brick with limestone trim in the Late Gothic Revival style, and each displays the Masonic emblem prominently. The 1920s campus plan was laid out by Wiley G. Clarkson, who designed the Administration Building, dining hall, superintendent's house and senior boys dormitory. Herbert M. Greene designed the girls' dormitories. Two earlier buildings, a laundry from 1910 and a dairy and industrial arts building from 1915, survive from the first phase of development. The district represents the way fraternal organizations cared for the widows and orphans of their members, a type of facility that spread during the Progressive Era. It also holds a largely unaltered group of institutional buildings from 1910 to 1941. Later buildings from after 1941 are modern in design and are not counted among the historic resources.