The seven-story brick building was built in stages between 1906 and 1908 by the Haverhill Board of Trade, a consortium of local businessmen.

The building also marked an expansion of Haverhill's business and industrial district into a previously residential area.

It also marked a significant expansion of the city's industrial facilities away from Washington and Essex Streets, where they were then concentrated.

After its construction (in which the three legs of the U were built separately, as land was acquired for them), the building rapidly filled up with relatively small shoe-manufacturing operations and companies that serviced them.

It eventually became the headquarters and principal show room of Cabot Furniture, which owned two of the three parcels until 2004.