One of the oldest remaining buildings in the town of Mullan, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church was built in the late summer of 1888, the same year the town of Mullan was platted, the plat for the town being filed on August 4th, 1888. It was not built as a church, however, but as a school to serve the burgeoning population.
Mullan came into being concurrent with the discovery of significant gold, silver and lead deposits in the surrounding mountains. With the construction of a concentrator plant in 1885, followed by the arrival of both the the Union Pacific and Northern Pacific railroads in 1888, Mullan grew quickly. By 1892 its small one room school had become "woefully inadequate", forcing the town to construct new and larger facilities. The building was almost immediately acquired by the Episcopalians who previously had no meeting place to call home.
The major changes made to the little wood framed building upon the Episcopalians' acquisition of it was to replace all rectangular windows with the Gothic windows it retains today and encircling the interior with a stud wall inside the existing plank wall. Since that time very little has changed inside or out save for a coat of paint or two through the years.
Today the building serves as a museum and an occasional meeting place for various functions. A cross remains at the peak of the front gable over the entrance, a reminder of its 90 years of service to the Episcopalians of Mullan.
The Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church began its service to the Mullan community as its first
schoolhouse. It was constructed on its present Hunter Avenue site in the late summer of 1888 and was in use for the fall term of that year. This facility served as the only educational institution in Mullan for the next four years. By 1892, however, continued growth in both the general and school-age population in Mullan had rendered the original one room schoolhouse woefully inadequate. In that year the local school district constructed a new multi-room school and disposed of the old building to the local Episcopal parish.
Prior to 1892, Episcopalians in Mullan had worshipped in private homes or traveled to nearby communities such as Wallace. When the opportunity to acquire the old school presented itself, the local parish was quick to take advantage of a permanent home. They quickly adapted the building for use as a church hall. This consisted mainly of replacing the old windows and door with new Gothic-style fittings and building an interior stud wall within the existing plank frame of the building.
Saint Andrew's continued to serve Mullan's Episcopalians as a parish church until it was sold to a private owner in 1982. In addition, and more importantly, this building served a larger role in the community. As in many small towns, Saint Andrew's served as a general meeting hall and social facility for the town of Mullan, particularly for the west side of town. This building hosted, in addition to religious services, a wide range of other community functions. As such, it played a significant role in the development and social fabric of Mullan through the historic period. It is also one of the few tangible reminders of the initial settlement of Mullan.
From the NRHP Registration Form