Silver City included the original building of the last post office, built about 1868 and known as the Schleifer House and later the Riordan House. It was the home of Fred Webb, who lived there and kept the post office in the front room, serving as Silver City's last postmaster until the post office was discontinued in 1943 during World War II. Before modern refrigeration, dams across Jordan Creek above town formed ponds where large blocks of winter ice were sawed out, hauled to town, and stored in the ice house under alternating layers of sawdust and ice to keep food and drinks cool. Next to the ice house stood the Owyhee Brewery, built by Fred Grete in 1887 and operated until about 1908; by 1937 the upper part of the building was gone, and only the rock foundations remained. Reports indicated that it brewed very good beer.