SCAB: Ku Klux Klan Klavern
No. 101 Auditorium, 1012 N. Main
Street, Fort Worth, TX, 2019

SCAB: Ku Klux Klan Klavern
No. 101 Auditorium, 1012 N. Main
Street, Fort Worth, TX, 2019

In the early 1920s, Fort Worth had one of the largest Ku Klux Klan memberships in the United States. In 1921 KKK Klavern No. 101 began construction on an auditorium at 1012 N. Main Street. After a mysterious fire, it was rebuilt in 1925. The Klan used the building for meetings, rallies, initiations, and performances including minstrel shows. In 1925 Harry Houdini, one of the guest performers, asked, “Can the dead speak to the living?” In 1931 KKK membership dwindled and the Klan sold the building. It was subsequently used as a department store warehouse and later as a dance-marathon auditorium, a wrestling and boxing arena, and a pecan-shelling factory.

In 2019 DNAWORKS coconvened Transform 1012 N. Main Street (T1012), a nonprofit organization, to acquire the building. In early 2022, T1012 announced its purchase and future transformation into the Fred Rouse Center and Museum for Arts and Community Healing.

2019

Digital photograph

In copyright

Ku Klux Klan (20th century)--Texas

Fort Worth (Tex.)--History

Rouse, Fred