The La Crosse Labor Temple Association was formed in 1921 as a profit-making corporation intended to provide building space for La Crosse's labor unions to use for administrative, meeting, and social purposes. Capital shares were issued with the intent that stockholders would receive regular dividends on their investment. This enabled the purchase of “Yeoman Hall” from Ernest Schultz in 1921.
Yeoman Hall already had its own place in La Crosse labor history as it had been built in 1890 by the Norwegian Workingmen's Society of La Crosse. The Scandia Hall Association took over the building a year later and sold it to the Y.M.C.A. in 1894. Schultz bought the building in 1909 and leased the second floor to the Brotherhood of American Yeoman. The building, which came to be known as the King Street Labor Temple, was not able to be fully occupied by the Labor Temple Association until 1925 when all existent leases had expired.
In an effort to bring more capital into the venture, a resolution was brought forward and passed in 1923 calling for the La Crosse Trades and Labor Council to make the purchase of at least one share of the association's stock compulsory for every individual belonging to a local union. By 1929, 21 unions as well as the La Crosse Building Trades Council and Trade and Labor Council held stock in the association. In 1943, the corporation was reincorporated to nonprofit status.
The association funded major building renovations to its King Street facility in 1955. A sleek, modernized exterior replaced the ornamental towers and gingerbread trimming which bespoke of the building's 1890s construction. Signage identifying the building as the A.F.L. Labor Temple was also installed.
During 1979 and 1980, the association purchased, remodeled, and moved to a building located on Ward Avenue in La Crosse with the plan to quickly sell the King Street building. However, the King Street building did not sell for quite some time and the association was unable to meet its financial commitments. Ownership of the Ward Street building was assumed by Jim Baus in 1983 and it is likely the association became inactive at that time.
The association also operated a tavern within its facilities called the A.F.L. Club.
