The four-story complex was built out of brick and is shaped roughly like an 'E' with the central portion of a building situated east and west, paralleling Columbia Avenue, and three wings extending north.

[4] The Adams and Perry Watch Manufacturing Company was formed in September 1874 and started construction on the original building in the complex, which was completed in July 1875.

[5] The building, designed by Chicago-architect Clarence Luther Stiles in the Second Empire style, was three stories high and consisted of only the eastern tower, flanked on either side with a wing.

Its assets were sold in 1892 in a public auction to a group of investors from Lancaster, who had also bought another bankrupt watch company in Aurora, Illinois.

In 1902, the western wing was extended, and a fourth floor was added to the entire building, as well as an extension of the clock tower and modification of its mansard roof in 1905.

[8] A proposal was put forth in 1981 by a Philadelphia-based real estate developer to convert the complex into 202  apartments and 61 townhouses, but it fell through; its failure being blamed on "high interest rates and restrictive zoning regulations".