It was built in 1891 by architect Haldor Larsen Børve and used as a liquor store and restaurant until 1903, when the city took it over for use as a customs house.

[1][2][3] In 1848, a consortium of shipowners and captains bought a plot of land between Storgata and the Porsgrunn River and built a shipyard there, which they named "Reform."

Starting a new shipyard at the time was a risky proposition, and initially their investment paid off, with six ships launched from the facility over a period of just five years.

[1][4] In the spring of 1873, Porsgrunds Brændevinssamlag was created to capitalize on the new law, and in 1887 they received a licence to become the sole alcoholic beverage retailer in Porsgrunn.

[2][6] In the 1880s, the city announced their plans to build a new wharf, called Østre Porsgrunn Dampskipsbrygge, on the plot of the old "Reform" shipyard.

The resulting Neo-Gothic brick building, referred to colloquially as "Samlagsgården" or "Reformgården," contained three restaurants and a liquor store.

The movement, which objected to the samlag on moral grounds, was especially strong in Porsgrunn due to the efforts of local resident Carl Reynolds, founder of the Norwegian chapter of the International Organisation of Good Templars.

Their efforts paid off on 10 April 1897, when a local referendum to break up the samlag and prohibit all sale and serving of liquor in the city passed with a 124 vote majority.

[1] The city had been looking for a new customs house to replace the old one in Frednes (now part of the Porsgrunn Maritime Museum), since it was considered too far away from the center of town.

[1] The customs building housed these various government offices for many years, but slowly the other tenants began to move their operations elsewhere.

The corner facing Porsgrunn City Hall is cut at a 45-degree angle to the other walls and is topped with a weather vane marked with 1891, the year of the building's completion.