Founded in Philadelphia in 1869, the secret organization Knights of Labor promoted an ideal society based on bettering life for others with the slogans “labor was the first capital” and “an injury to one is the concern of all.” Shawnee’s Local Assembly No. 169, organized in 1876, quickly became a powerful voice for labor in Ohio. National labor leader William T. Lewis, later Ohio Labor Commissioner, taught free grammar classes at night for miners there and initiated “The Ohio Plan,” the first free employment bureaus in the United States. William H. Bailey, later head of National District Assembly No. 135 of Miners, and T.L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers in 1910, also started their careers there, and meetings involving these leaders led to the formation of the United Mine Workers in 1890. After the Knights of Labor became an open organization in 1879, the Opera House was built in 1881 as a demonstration of pride that it was no longer secret. Built at a basic construction cost of $8,200, with hand-molded bricks hauled to be fired at the edge of town, the building housed a cooperative store on the first floor, a theater on the second floor, and a library with a classroom and meeting space on the third floor. The auditorium became the centerpiece of social life and entertainment for the area, hosting plays, graduations, dances, and gatherings such as the annual Bobby Burns celebration and the Welsh Eisteddfods. As a more trade union oriented labor movement led to the formation of the American Federation of Labor, Knights of Labor membership diminished, and the building was sold in 1902 to the Knights of Pythias and again in 1943 to Hannah Brothers Furniture.