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by 1889 — 1915 and after
Four lodges and a drill corps: The Knights of Pythias, founded at Washington in 1864 on the Damon and Pythias story of friendship, planted in Fort Wayne the densest cluster of lodges of any order but the Masons. The 1891–92 directory lists four, each with its own weeknight and its own hall: Goethe Lodge No. 99, the German lodge, meeting Thursdays in the Bass Block; Phoenix Lodge No. 101, Mondays in Randall Hall; Fort Wayne Lodge No. 116, Tuesdays in the Bass Block; and Loyal Lodge No. 182, Wednesdays in the Bass Block — with the Summit City Uniform Rank, the order's uniformed drill branch, camping in the Randall Block besides. The Pythian hall in the 1889–90 directory bears the founder's name: Rathbone Hall, at 20 West Berry Street, where the Anthony Wayne Post of the GAR also met — Justus Rathbone's surname was on the door of Fort Wayne lodge life. By 1915 the surviving lodges had consolidated under one roof, the K of P Home at 122 Washington Boulevard West, where Phoenix Lodge, Fort Wayne Lodge and the Uniform Rank met through the week and Rathbone Temple No. 31 of the Pythian Sisters, the order's women's auxiliary, met on Saturdays. The lodge histories preserved in the order's own Indiana directory of 1901 already listed Phoenix and Fort Wayne lodges without institution dates — the order kept worse records than the Masons, and the Fort Wayne Pythians' founding dates are among the gaps this history notes rather than fills.
Sources:
- R. L. Polk & Co., Fort Wayne city directories, 1889–90, 1891–92, 1915, 1918 — the four lodges, Rathbone Hall, the K of P Home and its roster.
- Official Pythian Lodge Directory (1901), Indiana listings, preserved by the Knights of Pythias history project — Phoenix No. 101 and Fort Wayne No. 116.