Built in 1884, it is unusual for the period for its wood-frame construction, and for its financing, executed by local businessmen to attract shoe manufacturers to the city.

It is a wood-frame structure, 171 feet (52 m) in length, with a gabled roof, and a full-height brick basement level, providing a full four stories of space.

[2] The mill was built in 1884 and enlarged in 1892, and was owned by a consortium of local business leaders.

They sought to diversify the city's economy by attracting shoe manufacturers, who were dealing with a period of labor unrest in the major shoe-producing centers of Massachusetts.

The building housed a shoe manufacturing operation until 1902, when it was taken over by the Queensbury Mills of Worcester, Massachusetts and converted to yarn production.