[2] The building was completed in 1921 as a home for the activities of the El Zariabah Shrine unit, a local Shriners organization that had been formed in 1896.

[3] It was designed by architects Lescher & Mahoney and built by Clinton Campbell.

[3] After the Shriners relocated, the state government of Arizona acquired their original building to house the museum and offices of the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, which moved in in October 1991.

The building was renamed the Polly Rosenbaum Building in honor of Polly Rosenbaum, a longtime member of the Arizona House of Representatives who, in collaboration with then-governor Rose Mofford, spearheaded efforts to obtain and renovate the building as a permanent home for the Department's mineral collection and archives.

[2][5][6][7] This is one of two Arizona state government buildings in Phoenix that are named for Rosenbaum; the other is the Polly Rosenbaum State Archives and History Building, located at 19th and Madison and completed in 2008.