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.[2] Starting in 1913, it had its own school system, the Masonic Home Independent School District.[3][4] Orphan Blake R. Van Leer was the only boy in 1909, went on to become president of Georgia Tech and civil rights advocate.[5]
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.[2][6]
Early history
Postcard of the Masonic Home ca. 1910
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.[3][4]
Its 1930s football teams are the subject of a 2007 book by Jim Dent, Twelve Mighty Orphans.[8] 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.[9] The school district merged with the Fort Worth Independent School District and the buildings and grounds were sold to a private developer.[4] The school's chapel is now a private facility known as the Bell Tower Chapel, a popular wedding location.[10]
Portions of some school districts extend into other counties; only high schools in Tarrant County are listed here Aledo ISD, Burleson ISD, and Godley ISD serve sections of Tarrant County, but they operate no high schools in it.
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