Mechanics Hall served as Oneida County's cultural and civic center through the Civil War, hosting many anti-slavery events, lectures, and demonstrations. Its first floor was intended for retail space and commerce, its second floor housed a reading room and served as the early home of Utica's public library and art museum, and its third floor contained a large hall for conventions, musical and theatrical performances, lectures, religious assemblies, and other public meetings. Erected in 1837 by the Utica Mechanics Association as a place for exhibitions and speakers promoting mechanical and industrial arts, it counted many of the city's leading manufacturers, entrepreneurs, craftsmen, and artists among its members, including John Butterfield, Theodore S. Faxton, and Horatio Seymour. Frederick Douglass, who had strong ties to Central New York, spoke there, Solomon Northup read from his memoir, "12 Years A Slave," and the Hutchinson Family Singers performed there several times in the 1840s with a repertoire that included anti-slavery songs. In 1861, Susan B. Anthony's scheduled lecture, "No Compromise with Slavery," was canceled for fear of a riot, and around 1863 men assembled there to learn whether they had been drafted into the Union Army.