[1][5] The store's location since 1891 was 5th & Washington, but growth in business led the owners to begin planning in 1908 for a move to a larger building.

[1] In 1909–1910, the company built its large new store in the block bounded by Morrison, Alder, 10th and 9th streets in downtown.

The new building was five stories tall, plus a basement, and was the first store in the Northwest to occupy an entire city block (200 by 200 feet (61 m × 61 m) in downtown Portland).

The site had previously been occupied by the mansion of Sylvester Pennoyer, a former Oregon governor (1886–1895) and Portland mayor (1896–1898).

[1] The building's interior was designed by the Portland architectural firm of Doyle, Patterson & Beach.

[1] The store included a 53-by-33-foot (16 m × 10 m) atrium in the center, topped by a large skylight[1] and was equipped with other amenities that were considered very modern for the time, at least in a city the size of Portland.

Among these were the elevators, six in total (in two banks of three), which rose and descended in exposed shafts facing the atrium, within ironwork cages.

At that time, Olds, Wortman & King was one of the largest retail businesses in the city and was employing 1,200 people.

[1] A five-year remodeling in 1946–51, led by Portland architect Pietro Belluschi, included replacement of the passenger elevators with more modern ones, installation of escalators and closure of the atrium (in 1949), among other changes.

[1][14] Three months after the Galleria's opening, The Oregonian newspaper referred to the project as being possibly "the most exciting development in downtown [Portland] merchandising in several decades.

[1] However, the opening of Pioneer Place in 1990 was a significant blow to the Galleria[16] and the beginning of its gradual decline as a multi-store shopping mall.

[16][17] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, as the "Olds, Wortman and King Department Store".