In 1868, Swiss miner Peter Wys discovered the lucrative silver veins of the Elkhorn Mine, which would eventually yield $14 million of ore. After Wys died in 1872, Helena entrepreneur Anton M. Holter and partners developed the Elkhorn Mine. Holter sold out to an English syndicate circa 1888, and the mining camp flourished into the 1890s. At its peak, the community housed more than 2,500 residents, and three passenger trains arrived weekly on the Northern Pacific’s branch line.
In 1893, the Fraternity Hall Association incorporated to build the town’s architectural and social center, aptly named Fraternity Hall. The town’s various fraternal organizations, including the Masons, Oddfellows, and Knights of Pythias, shared its upstairs lodge room. The popular hall was the heart of the community. Dances, traveling theatrical troupes, graduation ceremonies, prize fights, and other public gatherings bound citizens together.
Fraternity Hall’s outstanding Greek Revival architecture typifies frontier aspirations of grandeur and mimics high-style buildings in urban centers elsewhere. The false front, common to mining camps across the West, was designed to make buildings appear taller and more substantial. The sophisticated, Neoclassical-style cantilevered balcony suspended above the entry is unique. The elaborate crenelated (notched) cornice at the roofline recalls elements crafted of stone or brick in more urban places, but here it was readily adapted to available wood.
