The exterior was clad in carefully laid ashlar Wauwatosa limestone, with openings trimmed in red-orange and gray sandstone.

The building was designed by E. Townsend Mix, Milwaukee's prominent architect at the time.

Inside, the original auditorium was "as bold and colorful as the exterior," with a nave arcade, a vaulted aisle, and "sumptuous ornament.

"[5] Then on December 31, 1887, during a snowstorm in the night after a choir performed Handel's Messiah, a fire started.

[7] It gutted the nave and chancel, collapsed the roof, and damaged the north wing, leaving only the limestone walls.