The Hall — Ironworkers' Local 44

The union seal is still in the floor. Nobody has decided what to do about that.

At a Glance

Field	Value
Type	Player HQ — base of operations
Common Name	The Hall
Formal Name	Ironworkers’ Local 44 Union Hall (former)
Address	Corner of Dolan and Renner, Ironworks/Riverside Ward border
District	Ironworks (border — one block from Riverside Ward)
Controlled by	The player team — Alliance satellite, formally transferred
Public Access	Restricted. Presents as a closed former union hall.
Status	Active — operational as of campaign start

Overview

The Hall is a three-story brick building on the corner of Dolan and Renner, at the precise seam where the Ironworks bleeds into Riverside Ward. It was built in 1938 by Ironworkers’ Local 44 — the steelworkers’ union that once had six hundred dues-paying members in this district. At peak it hosted contract negotiations, benefit hearings, and the occasional all-night card game. After the 1987 deindustrialization hollowed out the neighborhood, the union contracted, merged upward, and eventually stopped needing the space. The building passed through two nonprofit tenants and a brief stint as a community arts space before sitting empty.

Paragon transferred it to the new team as an Alliance satellite — a formal designation that gives the team access to Alliance resources, legal cover under the same cooperative framework A.E.G.I.S. maintains with the Alliance, and a physical base that isn’t Alliance Tower. The building was in serviceable condition when it was handed over. It is still being figured out.

Physical Layout

Ground Floor — Training and Equipment

The main floor was the original meeting hall: high ceilings, exposed timber beams, concrete floors. It has been partially converted for training use — cleared floor space, a reinforced wall on the south end, equipment cage in the northeast corner that holds what the Alliance could spare and what the team has sourced since.

The union seal — a cast iron medallion of the Local 44 insignia, roughly three feet across — is set into the concrete near the main entrance. It has been there since the building was constructed. No one has moved it. It remains in the floor as a fact of the space rather than a statement about it.

A secondary side entrance on Renner is the one most of the team uses day-to-day. The main Dolan entrance is heavier, more visible, and draws eyes.

Second Floor — Communications Suite

Arachne claimed the second floor. It is hers now in every meaningful sense.

The former administrative offices have been converted into a surveillance and communications hub: Weaver drone relay stations, dual monitors, hardline terminals, a server rack that runs warm and hums. Sloane keeps it organized in a way that looks chaotic but isn’t. She knows where everything is. Others do not.

There is a folding cot in the corner that she insists is for long ops. It is used more than that implies.

The second floor has the best view of the Dolan/Renner intersection, which is not an accident.

Third Floor — Undeveloped

The third floor has not been claimed. There are six cardboard boxes stacked against the north wall containing Local 44 records going back to 1938 — dues rolls, grievance logs, contract negotiations, the minutes of hundreds of meetings. No one has gone through them. No one is certain whether they should.

At the end of the east hallway is a locked room. The key was not included when the building was transferred. The Alliance has not explained this. The room is on the building plans. It does not appear to have been part of the original 1938 construction.

History

1938 — Ironworkers’ Local 44 constructs the building. Six hundred members at founding. Peak membership: approximately eight hundred in the 1960s.

1987 — Deindustrialization. Membership collapses over five years. The Hall’s primary function shifts from contract headquarters to community anchor; neighborhood services fill the meeting calendar.

Late 1990s–2000s — Union formally merges with a regional body. Local 44 is administratively dissolved. The Hall passes into nonprofit ownership for community programming.

2010s — Two short-term tenants. Brief community arts residency. Building sits vacant for approximately three years.

2025 — Paragon transfers the building to the new team as an Alliance satellite, citing the team’s operational focus on the Ironworks/Riverside Ward corridor. The provenance of Paragon’s title to the building is not something any of the team has yet examined closely.

The Neighborhood’s Awareness

The Hall being active again has not gone unnoticed.

Tomás Reyes — the hardware stall operator at the Kessler Market who hears everything and repeats nothing — has noticed the lights. He has not asked questions. He is the kind of person who decides what to do with information on a longer timeline than most people realize. He has been deciding for several weeks now.

Father Benedikt Wróbel at St. Sebastian’s, two buildings away on Dolan, has seen people coming and going at hours a closed building shouldn’t have people coming and going. He has said nothing to anyone outside the parish. He knew the last union steward who worked here. He is of the opinion that the neighborhood could use whatever the building is becoming, but he would appreciate being told.

The Ironworks has a long memory for who shows up and what they want. The Hall being occupied again is being watched. The team has not yet decided how much that matters to them.

The Locked Room

The room at the end of the third-floor east hallway is on the original building plans filed with the city in 1938. However, the room’s dimensions do not match the plans — the filed plans show a storage closet. What is actually behind the door is larger, based on the exterior measurements of the building versus the accessible interior space.

The key was not transferred with the building. This has not been explained.

Connections

Person / Entity	Connection
The Alliance	Satellite designation — formal. Paragon transferred the building; the team operates under the cooperative framework.
Sloane Callahan / Arachne	Has operationally claimed the second floor. Her network runs through here.
Tomás Reyes	Nearby; has noticed activity; has not acted on what he knows yet.
Father Benedikt Wróbel	Two buildings away; aware; watching.
Ironworkers’ Local 44 records	Six boxes, third floor, 1938–present. Unexamined.
The locked room	Third floor, east hallway. Unknown contents. Key not provided.

Open Questions

What is in the locked room — and who put it there?
Does Paragon’s title to the building trace cleanly, or is there something in the provenance worth examining?
Has anyone gone through the Local 44 records? Is there anything in them relevant to the Ironworks’ enhanced individual history?
When does Tomás Reyes decide what to do with what he knows?
Does Father Wróbel become a resource, a complication, or both?
What does the building become to the team over time — safe house, home, something else?

Last updated: March 2026