The Odd Fellows building is the oldest commercial structure in Roseville.

Roseville Odd Fellows #203 was instituted in 1872.

Charter member, J. D. Pratt, owned a brick making business on Dry Creek, where the fire station on Oak Street is currently located. Because fire had destroyed many of Roseville's's buildings, Pratt decided to build a brick building on Pacific Street to safely contain his business. He built a one-story brick structure with fourteen-inch thick walls, then he sold the air space above his building to the Odd Fellows.

The Odd Fellows built their structure on top of the Pratt building with their walls being twelve inches thick. If you look at the front of the structure today, you will see where the Pratt building stopped and the Odd Fellow building starts.

Several subsequent fires destroyed all of the neighboring buildings, but the Odd Fellows Building always survived. The ingenious placement of iron doors for the top floor windows prevented fire from ever entering the building.

Source: Adapted from the Roseville Historical Society.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) is an altruistic fraternal organization derived from the similar English Oddfellows service organizations which came into being during the 1700s....Although in Britain the Odd Fellows tended to meet in pubs, in the U.S. the lodges often built their own facilities. Many of these are now on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places....

From Wikipedia entry for Independent Order of Odd Fellows