This is reprint of an article that originally appeared in Advocate Oak Cliff magazine in 2017.
Interested in visiting? Dallas Lodge #44 opens our doors to visitors between 7-7:30 pm on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of every month.
By Jynnette Neal|September 26th, 2017
Artifacts from the Odd Fellows Lodge No. 44 in Oak Cliff. The mystery and ephemera of secret societies such as the Odd Fellows is the subject of Waxahachie-based artist Bruce Lee Webb’s 2015 book “As Above So Below.” Webb has been credited with reviving interest in the Odd Fellows, and some new members of Lodge 44 say the book inspired them to join. (Photo by Danny Fulgencio)
Service clubs kept communities together for decades until recent generations.
Members of the Odd Fellows, also known as “the three-link fraternity,” live by the motto “Friendship, Love and Truth.” Belonging to the Lions, the Kiwanis, the Masons or the Odd Fellows said something about a person. Outside of church, it was the basis for community, friendship and giving. But then Ed Sullivan happened. Membership in service clubs began declining as soon as there was a television in every household. More women began entering the workforce. Jobs became more demanding of time. Americans were too busy, too distracted, not interested enough to join.
While membership in service clubs remains far behind what it was in the heydays of the first half of the 20th century, some are making comebacks in Oak Cliff.
A secret society
In our neighborhood, the Odd Fellows Lodge No. 44 is one of the fastest-growing lodges in the country.
The secret society, not to be confused with the unaffiliated Oddfellows restaurant in the Bishop Arts District, dates back to 1700s London, and it arrived in Baltimore in 1819.
The first Odd Fellows lodge in Dallas, the one that’s now in Oak Cliff, predates the official City of Dallas. It opened in 1854, two years before the city incorporated.
At one time it was the largest Odd Fellows lodge in the Southwest. The lodge had a few buildings downtown before moving to a nondescript structure on Hampton and Wright in the 1970s.
Recent growth of the Oak Cliff lodge actually began in Waxahachie. Artist and folk-art dealer Bruce Lee Webb joined that lodge in the early 2000s because of his interest in the ephemera of secret societies — the robes, banners, masks and other items that are used in ceremonies.
He recruited some of his buddies, including tattoo artist/reality TV host Oliver Peck and Peck’s then-wife, Kat Von D.
Dallas City Archivist John Slate joined the Waxahachie lodge around 2004, and he decided to join the Odd Fellows in Oak Cliff in 2008.
“It was only me and a couple of old guys,” Slate says.
Artist Andy Don Emmons, who was a member of the Waxahachie lodge, joined the Oak Cliff lodge soon after he and his wife, Sandy, moved to Elmwood in 2014.
They decided to hold a recruiting happy hour, and dozens of people showed up. Fifteen new members joined that night, and the club has continued to grow from there. They now have hundreds of members.
Many of the new lodge members are artists or musicians or people who otherwise work in creative fields.
They all come together twice a month in the name of “friendship, love and truth,” their motto. The Odd Fellows originally started as a society to help orphans, widows and the impoverished, among other causes.
Local Odd Fellows have found their own ways to give.
Jonathan’s Place, an emergency shelter for foster children, is their main beneficiary. They also do a Christmas toy drive, and they still own and care for about half of Grove Hill Cemetery in Dallas.
Member Jenn Sereno discovered an old Odd Fellows program called “living legacy,” which planted trees in areas where developers had cut them down.
Sereno, a professional landscaper, decided to implement that in Oak Cliff, but she’s taken it a step further. She and her Odd Fellows brethren plant fruit and nut trees in areas where residents lack access to fresh produce. They’ve planted at least 44 trees a year since 2015. She says the project has been a cinch because Odd Fellows show up by the dozens and do all of the work. It took less than an hour recently to create six raised beds and plant eight trees in a Dallas community garden, she says.
“It’s the most painless way to be involved in charitable work,” Sandy Emmons says. Odd Fellows members recommend attending at least two dinners before moving forward with membership. They meet at 1808 S. Hampton Road on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 7 p.m.
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