Gladewater Lodge No. 852, A.F. & A.M., began when twenty master masons, many from Longview Masonic Lodge No. 404, petitioned on November 15, 1900, to form a separate lodge. Grand Master Nat M. Washer issued the dispensation on April 19, 1901, and Daniel Washington Wood served as the first Worshipful Master. The lodge formally chartered in December 1901 with 29 members. From 1901 to 1931, members met in James A. Ponder’s General Store, which also housed the post office, on the northwest corner of Main and Pacific. In its formative years, members included prominent early businessmen, clergymen, professionals, and civic leaders of Gladewater, among them Dr. Earl George McLaughlin, who opened the city’s first hospital and invented a medication during the influenza epidemic in 1918 that earned him national acclaim. Chapter 831, Order of the Eastern Star, shared a common early history with the lodge and, after being chartered in 1932, long supported lodge projects and activities. The lodge also met for a time in a schoolhouse and in the Measles Hotel before building its own hall at this site, where it first met on July 1, 1940, and formally dedicated the building in September that year. Meetings were held upstairs while the first floor was leased to several enterprises, including the Gladewater Daily Times-Tribune. Lodge members served the Grand Lodge of Texas as district deputy grand masters, supported Masonic projects, and contributed locally to community and educational programs, including annual scholarships. Today, the lodge remains an integral part of Gladewater’s future and a reminder of its rich history.