[2] The rear delivery entrance had a sectioned wooden door with metal shutters and no first floor windows.

[2] Above the decorative brickwork is a recessed panel bearing a signboard which reads "E. Janssen Building.

[2] The interior is minimally decorated but retains its water-operated hydraulic elevator from its historic use as a general store.

[3] After 14 years in business in this building, Janssen's moved to 521 Third Street where they continued to sell hardware.

[4] In 1889, Janssen's sold the building to Hans Henry Buhne (1822 – October 26, 1894), who was the first to pilot a boat of settlers across Humboldt Bay bar in 1850 as part of the Laura Virginia Company.

[5]: 116 [6] Buhne had many and varied business interests; he started the first hotel in Eureka,[2] ran tugboats over the bar, and built or owned several other local buildings.

[7] He was also vice president and director of the first bank in Eureka, a major investor in railroads and timberlands, and an active partner in the largest sawmill of the time.

[2] Buhne added decorative balconies accessed by curving stairs to the first floor space[10] which the local Humboldt Times newspaper described as Steamboat Gothic.