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Photo, Print, Drawing Miners' Union Hall, West side B Street, between Union & Sutton Streets, Virginia City, Storey County, NV

View 2 images in sequence.
[ Photos from Survey HABS NV-15-20  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS NV-15-20  ]
[ pdf version of supplemental pages ]

About this Item

Title

  • Miners' Union Hall, West side B Street, between Union & Sutton Streets, Virginia City, Storey County, NV

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Mizell, Robert P, field team
  • Hartwig, Robert L, project manager
  • McCreery, John T, delineator
  • Schafer, Jack W, delineator
  • Hartwig, Robert L, delineator
  • Kerrigan, Robert W, photographer

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  fraternal lodges
  • -  brick buildings
  • -  labor unions
  • -  working class
  • -  miners' unions
  • -  Nevada -- Storey County -- Virginia City

Notes

  • -  See also HABS NV-15-11 for additional documentation (measured drawings).
  • -  Significance: The picturesque Miners' Union and Knights of Pythias Halls are two of the few unaltered false-fronted buildings remaining in Virginia City. "Nevada Lodge No. 1" of the Knights of Pythias was formed in Virginia City on March 23, 1873. The Lodge's paraphernalia was consumed in a fire on September 11, 1875. New regalia, procured from the defunct lodge at Genoa, burned in the Great Virginia City Fire six weeks later. The existing cast iron and stuccoed brick building was built in 1875. Nevada shared it with the city's other lodges: Lincoln, No. 6 (1874), and Triumph, No. 11 (1879). A "Miners' Protective Association" was formed at Virginia City on June 6, 1863, with the central purpose of maintaining the standard wage of $4.00 a day for all work underground. Subsequently, the first demonstration to enforce this rate occurred at Gold Hill on July 31, 1864. Blacklisting of union members and general economic hard times reduced employment in 1864-65; the league disintegrated, and a wage of $3.50 was temporarily established in the spring of 1865. Employment revived, however, and a new miners' union was formed on July 4, 1867. Even after the Comstock was visibly and permanently declining in the late 1870's, the union successfully maintained the $4.00 rate. The original single story, wood meeting hall burned in the great fire of October 26, 1875. Its brick replacement, built in 1876, included an upstairs library. This library, established in 1877, was the only public library in Virginia City and the largest general library in the state. Union families had free access to its 2200 volumes while others paid $.50 a month.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-8
  • -  Survey number: HABS NV-15-20
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1876 Initial Construction
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000458

Medium

  • Photo(s): 2

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS NEV,15-VIRG,19-

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • nv0013

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

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For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS NEV,15-VIRG,19-
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Robert P Mizell, Robert L Hartwig, John T McCreery, Jack W Schafer, and Robert L Hartwig, Kerrigan, Robert W, photographer. Miners' Union Hall, West side B Street, between Union & Sutton Streets, Virginia City, Storey County, NV. Virginia City Nevada Storey County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/nv0013/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Mizell, R. P., Hartwig, R. L., McCreery, J. T., Schafer, J. W. & Hartwig, R. L., Kerrigan, R. W., photographer. (1933) Miners' Union Hall, West side B Street, between Union & Sutton Streets, Virginia City, Storey County, NV. Virginia City Nevada Storey County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/nv0013/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Kerrigan, Robert W. Miners' Union Hall, West side B Street, between Union & Sutton Streets, Virginia City, Storey County, NV. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/nv0013/>.