The property was originally built in the mid-1800’s at the center of the local Jewish and Italian communities. In the beginning it housed – among other things – a stove shop, alongside a popular and notorious saloon.  Around the year 1900, it became the Dryades Street Branch of Hibernia Bank.  And toward mid-century it expanded and converted to Sol Katz' Furniture Store, and later Barkoff’s Furniture.  Then in 1977, it became the local meeting lodge for the Knights of Pythias and Court of Calanthe, an important fraternal organization in New Orleans' black community.