The “vacant” years that were not

The city directories list 1100 and 1102 Harvard as vacant from 1936 through 1938, and the record immediately contradicts them. Walter Cavender, a 57-year-old pioneer Houston electrical contractor, kept a shop in the building at 1102 Harvard until his death in November 1936; his pallbearers included Reagan Lodge men. The Chronicle’s obituary printed his age as 87.

That same summer, two men gave the old temple as their home address during a coroner’s inquiry. The building never truly emptied; it simply stopped being written down.