Misplaced Pages

Masonic Home Independent School District
Masonic Home and School of Texas
Address
3600 Wichita Street Fort Worth, Texas United States
Coordinates	32°42′32″N 97°16′46″W / 32.70889°N 97.27944°W / 32.70889; -97.27944
District information
Grades	K-12
Established	1913
Closed	2005 (dissolved)
Other information
Merged into	Fort Worth ISD
Notes	School district for orphans, of notable historical interest
Website	Masonic Home and School of Texas - History
Masonic Widows and Orphans Home Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Masonic Widows and Orphans Home Historic DistrictShow map of TexasMasonic Widows and Orphans Home Historic DistrictShow map of the United States
Location	Roughly bounded by E. Berry St., Mitchell Blvd., Vaughn St., Wichita St. and Glen Garden Dr., Fort Worth, Texas
Area	206 acres (83 ha)
Built	1910 (1910)
Architect	Wiley G. Clarkson, Herbert M. Greene
Architectural style	Late Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.	91002022
Added to NRHP	January 28, 1992

The Masonic Home and School of Texas was a home for widows and orphans in what is now Fort Worth, Texas from 1889 to 2005. The first superintendent was Dr. Frank Rainey of Austin, Texas. Starting in 1913, it had its own school system, the Masonic Home Independent School District. Orphan Blake R. Van Leer was the only boy in 1909, went on to become president of Georgia Tech and civil rights advocate.

The campus included buildings designed by architects Wiley G. Clarkson of Fort Worth and Herbert M. Greene of Dallas, and it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district in 1992.

Early history

In 1899, the Masons opened a home for widows and orphans of Masons. Later, widows moved to a location in nearby Arlington (closed nearly a century later during the construction of Cowboys Stadium) and the home was opened to non-Masonic orphans. On January 10, 1913, under laws passed in 1905 allowing orphanages to organize their own schools, the Texas State Board of Education created the Masonic Home Independent School District.

The Texas Historical Commission recognizes the fraternal organization foundation as a historic district geographically in the southeast quadrant of Tarrant County, Texas lineate to U.S. Route 287 in Texas.

Football glory

Its 1930s football teams are the subject of a 2007 book by Jim Dent, Twelve Mighty Orphans. In 1995, the Masonic Home won the TAPPS Class 1A State Football Championship in Groesbeck, Texas. under the coaches Tom Hines and Arthur (Buster) Bone, also an ex-student.

The book would later be adapted into a film, 12 Mighty Orphans, in 2021.

Later years

The school closed in 2005 due to lack of funding because of a 6.9 million dollar sexual abuse settlement. The school district merged with the Fort Worth Independent School District and the buildings and grounds were sold to a private developer. The school's chapel is now a private facility known as the Bell Tower Chapel, a popular wedding location.

See also

• Grand Lodge of Texas
• List of school districts in Texas
• University Interscholastic League
• F. W. Woolworth Building (Fort Worth, Texas), also by architect Wiley G. Clarkson
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Tarrant County, Texas

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
2. ^ "Masonic Home and School of Texas Historic Marker". 1999. Retrieved October 23, 2008.
3. ^ Neeley, Shirley, J.Closing of Masonic Home Independent School District Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine, Texas Education Agency, retrieved 2008-04-10
4. ^ Masonic Home and School of Texas - History, retrieved 2008-04-10 Archived March 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
5. "Beyond the Chain Link Lay the Kingdom of the Mighty Mites". 1909. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
6. "Masonic Widows and Orphans Home Historic District ~ NHRP: 91002022". National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior.
7. "Masonic Widows and Orphans Home Historic District ~ THS Atlas No. 2091002022" [Texas Historic Sites Atlas]. Texas Historic Sites Atlas. Texas Historical Commission. January 28, 1992.
8. Dent, Jim, Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football, 2007, ISBN 0-312-30872-8. Amazon.com, books.google.com, links retrieved 2008-04-10
9. "Sex abuse settlements may lead Masonic school to close". September 19, 2002.
10. "Home". belltowerfortworth.com.

External links

• Masonic Children & Family Services in Texas
• Masonic Home ISD Profile - Texas Education Agency
• Map of Tarrant County showing area school districts prior to MHISD consolidation - Texas Education Agency - Web version

v t e National Register of Historic Places in Texas
Lists by county	Anderson Andrews Angelina Aransas Archer Armstrong Atascosa Austin Bailey Bandera Bastrop Baylor Bee Bell Bexar Blanco Borden Bosque Bowie Brazoria Brazos Brewster Briscoe Brooks Brown Burleson Burnet Caldwell Calhoun Callahan Cameron Camp Carson Cass Castro Chambers Cherokee Childress Clay Cochran Coke Coleman Collin Collingsworth Colorado Comal Comanche Concho Cooke Coryell Cottle Crane Crockett Crosby Culberson Dallam Dallas Dawson Deaf Smith Delta Denton DeWitt Dickens Dimmit Donley Duval Eastland Ector Edwards El Paso Ellis Erath Falls Fannin Fayette Fisher Floyd Foard Fort Bend Franklin Freestone Frio Gaines Galveston Garza Gillespie Glasscock Goliad Gonzales Gray Grayson Gregg Grimes Guadalupe Hale Hall Hamilton Hansford Hardeman Hardin Harris Harrison Hartley Haskell Hays Hemphill Henderson Hidalgo Hill Hockley Hood Hopkins Houston Howard Hudspeth Hunt Hutchinson Irion Jack Jackson Jasper Jeff Davis Jefferson Jim Hogg Jim Wells Johnson Jones Karnes Kaufman Kendall Kenedy Kent Kerr Kimble King Kinney Kleberg Knox La Salle Lamar Lamb Lampasas Lavaca Lee Leon Liberty Limestone Lipscomb Live Oak Llano Loving Lubbock Lynn Madison Marion Martin Mason Matagorda Maverick McCulloch McLennan McMullen Medina Menard Midland Milam Mills Mitchell Montague Montgomery Moore Morris Motley Nacogdoches Navarro Newton Nolan Nueces Ochiltree Oldham Orange Palo Pinto Panola Parker Parmer Pecos Polk Potter Presidio Rains Randall Reagan Real Red River Reeves Refugio Roberts Robertson Rockwall Runnels Rusk Sabine San Augustine San Jacinto San Patricio San Saba Schleicher Scurry Shackelford Shelby Sherman Smith Somervell Starr Stephens Sterling Stonewall Sutton Swisher Tarrant Taylor Terrell Terry Throckmorton Titus Tom Green Travis Trinity Tyler Upshur Upton Uvalde Val Verde Van Zandt Victoria Walker Waller Ward Washington Webb Wharton Wheeler Wichita Wilbarger Willacy Williamson Wilson Winkler Wise Wood Yoakum Young Zapata Zavala
National parks	Big Bend National Park Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks National Natural Landmarks Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks
United States National Register of Historic Places listings Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

• School districts in Tarrant County, Texas
• Former school districts in Texas
• Historic districts in Texas
• Masonic educational institutions in the United States
• School districts in Fort Worth, Texas
• School districts disestablished in 2005
• National Register of Historic Places in Fort Worth, Texas
• 2005 disestablishments in Texas
• Freemasonry in Texas