Oak Bowery is a small community in Chambers County, Alabama, It consists of only a few homes and churches. The Early Star Lodge #395, Morning Star Chapter #734 of the Prince Hall Free & Accepted Masons call this building home. It sits on the campus of the St. Luke CME Church.

According to what I can find, researchers at Middle Tennessee State University were told by community members that this building once served as a fraternal lodge, funeral home, and store for the Black community of La Grange, Tennessee. Tax records for the property do not include any info on the building. Based on other fraternal lodges I have photographed over the years, I would date this…

The two-story building next to St. Paul CME Church initially served as a lodge. Built in 1870, the building is believed to have ties to the prominent Dickson (Amanda America Dickson Toomer) and Hubert families of Hancock County. In the early 1950s, it served as a school after a nearby one had burned. The building was no longer used once school consolidation was implemented in the late 1950s.

The Hebron Lodge occupies what was once the Ebenezer Methodist Church in Ashland, Georgia. The congregation of Ebenezer was founded in the 1820s. Their first church was on the same plot of land. In 1882 a new church was built by the congregation. It is the one that stands today. The congregation dissolved in the 1960s. At some point the Hebron Lodge #564 took over the space and now use it as a…

The Hiwassee Union Missionary Baptist Church evolved over the years to now serve as the Hiwassee Meeting Hall. Built in 1899 along the banks of the Hiwassee River, the church served the community as a church at first and then as a fraternal lodge and schoolhouse. The porch was enclosed to add more space to the facility. Notice the seams along the sides. Today, the building can be rented for…