
The Miner's Union Hall was home to one of the Comstock's most significant protective associations. Though the two-story brick building is small, it has an ornate curved parapet with a narrow, denticulated cornice. Decorating the parapet is a metal image of a beehive, which symbolizes communal labor, an appropriate emblem for a union. The Miner's Protective Association of Storey County, founded on 30 May 1863, was the first organization for miners in the West. It demanded a minimum standard wage of $4 a day, equivalent to $56 today, and provided benefits for miners and their families. A few years later the Virginia City Miner's Union replaced the earlier organization. This group built the hall after the Great Fire of 1875.