all that was at one time
the principal amusement hall of the city. The building was constructed
in 1850 by the Elfelt brothers and the ground floor was occupied by
them as a dry goods store. It is one of the very oldest buildings in
the city. The name of Elfelt brothers until quite recently could be
seen on the Exchange street side of the building. The hall was named
Mazurka hall, and all of the swell entertainments of the early '50s
took place in this old building. At a ball given in the hall during
one of the winter months more than forty years ago, J.Q.A. Ward,
bookkeeper for the Minnesotian, met a Miss Pratt, who was a daughter
of one of the proprietors of the same paper, and after an acquaintance
of about twenty minutes mysteriously disappeared from the hall and got
married. They intended to keep it a secret for a while, but it was
known all over the town the next day and produced great commotion.
Miss Pratt's parents would not permit her to see her husband, and they
were finally divorced without having lived together.

For a number of years Napoleon Heitz kept a saloon and restaurant in
this building. Heitz had participated in a number of battles under
the great Napoleon, and the patrons of his place well recollect the
graphic descriptions of the battle of Waterloo which he would often
relate while the guest was partaking of a Tom and Jerry or an oyster
stew.

* * * * *

During the summer of 1860 Charles N. Mackubin erected two large
buildings on the site of the Metropolitan hotel. Mozart hall was on
the Third street end and Masonic hall on the Fourth street corner. At
a sanitary fair held during the winter of 1864 both of these halls
were thrown together and an entertainment on a large scale was
held for the benefit of the almost depleted fundes of the sanitary
commission. Fairs had been given for this fund in nearly all the
principal cities of the North, and it was customary to vote a sword
to the most popular volunteer officer whom the state had sent to the
front. A large amount of money had been raised in the different cities
on this plan, and the name of Col. Marshall of the Seventh regiment
and Col. Uline of the Second were selected as two officers in whom it
was thought the people would take sufficient interest to bring out a
large vote. The friends of both candidates were numerous and each side
had some one stationed at the voting booth keeping tab on the number
of votes