Independent Order of Odd Fellows

Who are the Odd Fellows?
The building Galano occupies is leased from the Capital Lodge #23, Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). The Odd Fellows are a “secret society” founded in 1730 in England, and 1819 in the United States. The Austin Lodge was founded in 1852.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, men’s societies flourished and provided an important social safety net for their members, and society at large. Membership in an Elks Lodge, or the Masons, or Woodmen, or Odd Fellows guaranteed that you would have a dignified funeral and burial—and your widow and orphans would be taken care of. These organizations built hospitals, schools, old-folks’ homes, and orphanages that were essential to American society prior to institution of Social Security and Medicare.
The Odd Fellows have three missions:
To bury the dead
To educate the orphan
To relieve the distressed
Odd Fellows work with Save Austin’s Cemeteries to conserve and preserve our local historical cemeteries. The Capital Lodge made a significant donation to a project documenting the history of African Americans at Oakwood Cemetery. And its brothers have restored many gravestones of formerly enslaved people at Bethany Cemetery.
For over a decade the Capital Lodge Odd Fellows have committed to donating $24,000 to two Austin children’s homes each year: the Helping Hand Home for Children, and the Settlement Home. In 2022 an additional gift of $50,000 helped fund a new educational building at the Helping Hand Home. The mission to “educate the orphan” is fulfilled by funding these programs.
The Odd Fellows’ lease to the Galano Club—which is much-discounted from the market rate—is just one way they “relieve the distressed.” When the Lodge leased the building to the Galano Club in 2012, they were looking for a non-profit tenant that would serve as many people as possible. And because both the Galano Club and the Odd Fellows are a 501(c) non-profits, we are exempt from property taxes—so there is more income to do “good works.”
The framed Independent Order of Odd Fellows documents hanging at the back of the Big Meeting Room are there with the permission of the Galano Club, in gratitude for the dispensation given the Club during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Odd Fellows forgave the Club ten months of rent while closed in 2020.
And this brings us to the “virtuous cycle of charity.” Because the Odd Fellows pay no taxes, they are able to donate all of the money received from the Galano lease back to the community.
At each 12 Step Recovery meeting, the basket is passed. Most of that money goes to Galano to pay the lease to the Odd Fellows. Then the Odd Fellows reinvest it in our local Children’s Homes and other charities. In addition to the annual $24,000 commitment, a raffle is conducted twice a month during the Lodge meeting. The winning Odd Fellow selects a non-profit of their choice to receive a $200 contribution.
A note on the iconography: The symbols include the all-seeing eye of a higher power, the skull and crossbones reminding us we are all equal in death, and the three links of F-L-T. “Friendship, Love, and Truth are the basic guides to the ultimate destiny of mankind.”