The Masonic Hall of North Lufkin was completed in 1900 by Will Engram, an architect of the African American community who moved to Lufkin in 1896 and, despite having only a third grade education, became a master architect and carpenter who built around 100 homes in the area. This simple wood-frame hall became a meeting place for the Black community's fraternal organizations. The Dawn of Light Free Masons charter dated back to 1893, and under Masonic ownership since 1923, the hall on Leach Street served the American Woodmen, the Order of Elks, the Free Masons Dawn of Light Lodge #79, the Eastern Stars, and the Heroines of Jericho for meetings, ceremonies, and community activities until the mid-1970s. Beginning in 1971, the hall fell on hard times and was placed on the city's demolition list, but Will Engram's daughter worked to save it as a commemoration to her father and as a monument to the Black community. The first floor is now dedicated to revitalizing community organizations, the second floor is used as a Black history room, and artifacts found in the hall were given to the East Texas Research Center of the Steen Library at Stephen F. Austin State University, where they remain today. For more than a century, the Masonic Lodge has served Lufkin's Black community through education and outreach, and the building is one of the last remaining structures from the turn of the 20th century.