Western Federation of Miners Union Hall
You are here
American Legion Post (Western Federation of Miners Union Hall)
1901. 1069 Greene St. (corner of 11th St.)
Members of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) donated labor to build this brick edifice with an open second-story hall, only to be evicted during the 1903–1904 strikes. Subsequently their hall housed a store, a funeral home, and various saloons and lodges. Brick pilasters and cast iron columns front the recessed entry and storefronts. Elongated second-story windows with round tops have stone trim beneath a bracketed metal cornice. In 1948 the AFL-CIO sold the hall to the American Legion, but in 1989 the upstairs hall came back to life as the Miners Union Theater. A small, square tower atop the corner entry and a flagpole make this hall easy to find.
The WFM also built the Miners' Hospital (1907), 1325 Snowden Street, on the site of the pioneer cabin of Francis M. Snowden, a founder of Silverton. The hospital, a dreary red brick building on a rough stone foundation, later became headquarters for Standard Metals, Sunnyside Gold, Echo Bay Mines, and other operators of the Sunnyside Mine.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.