In 1880, a group of African American men meeting in Vicksburg, Mississippi, established the Knights of Pythias of North America, South American, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. This was a parallel society to a white Knights of Pythias founded in 1864, which denied membership to non-whites. The new organization was open to all and followed the organizational structure of many other fraternal organizations with a national Supreme Lodge, Grand Lodges at the state level, and local lodges regionally. Sometimes known as the Colored Knights of Pythias, the benevolent the organization grew to 40,000 members before 1900 with grand lodges in twenty states. There was also a women’s auxiliary open to family members called the Order of Calanthe. The Grand Lodge of Missouri, the Pythian Temple Building, was located in St. Louis at 3137 Pine Street in the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood. Aaron W. (A.W.) Lloyd was the Grand Chancellor of the lodge for several years. According to Gould's 1908 St. Louis city directory, this building was the meeting place of up to fifteen individual chapters of the Knights of Pythias in the St. Louis metropolitan area, all of whom were African American chapters. Names listed as officers of the lodge which oversaw operations at 3137 include Lloyd as well as others like W.P. Curtis, Homer G. Phillips, C.K. Robinson and George P. Jones, men of established prominence in the local African American business and professional community.