The tall three-and-a-half-story brick building with a corbeled front gable was erected as the Elkton Opera House and a meeting space for the International Order of Odd Fellows fraternal organization. Its construction immediately after the Civil War from designs by the Baltimore architecture firm Dixon and Davis signaled the prosperity of Elkton in this period. Thomas Dixon had an illustrious career spanning several different partnerships and was the architect of many public buildings, such as the Baltimore County Courthouse.