The Pythian Castle Lodge, also known as Crystal Palace, in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, United States, was built in 1927 by the

Knights of Pythias The Knights of Pythias is a Fraternal and service organizations, fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on . The Knights of Pythias was the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an Act of Co ...

, a fraternal organization. In 1988 it was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization founded in 1864 in Washington, D.C., aiming to promote the qualities of friendship, loyalty, honor and justice demonstrated in the ancient Greek legend of

Damon and Pythias The story of Damon (; , gen. Δάμωνος) and Pythias (; or ; or Phintias, ) is a legend in Greek historic writings illustrating the Pythagorean ideal of friendship. Pythias is accused of and charged with plotting against the tyrannical Dion ...

. Chapters sprouted up across the U.S., including one in Milwaukee in 1870. This was Schiller Lodge, No. 3, which was a German-speaking group. By the 1890s, Schiller lodge had switched to an English-language ritual and Milwaukee had three other Pythian lodges on the south side: Taylor Lodge, Walker Lodge, and National Lodge, No. 141. In 1909, those four men's lodges banded together with Pythian Sisters Purity Temple and the Rathbone Sisters Star Temple. The merged group rented meeting spaces for years. In 1921, they decided to build their own hall. The new meeting hall on National Avenue was designed by Milwaukee architect Richard Oberst. It is a two-story brick structure on a poured concrete foundation with a roof that is flat in parts and hipped elsewhere, covered in clay tile. This much is a Mediterranean Revival style. But the structure also has

pavilions In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

on the corners with curve-topped parapets, drawn from

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (), often known simply as Spanish Revival, is a term used to encompass a number of revivalist architectural styles based in both Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture in general. Thes ...

style. with Oberst also designed the Excelsior Masonic Temple at 2422 W. National Avenue in Milwaukee, a

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

building from 1922 that was deemed to be NRHP-eligible but was not listed on the NRHP due to owner objection. This Pythian Castle was built during the heyday of the Pythians. In the 1920s they were the third largest fraternal organization in the western world. Unlike the

Freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

, the Pythians rented their space out to other organizations, including labor groups like the Order of Railroad Engineers, the Harvester Tool Makers, Painters and Varnishers, the Firefighters Local No. 215, the Hatters Local, and the Die Sinkers Union; also the Squirrel Club, the South Side Civic Association, and the Navy Fathers.

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{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures completed in 1927 Buildings and structures in Milwaukee Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Knights of Pythias buildings National Register of Historic Places in Milwaukee