[1] The land at the site occupies part of allotments 4 and 5 of section 35 which were acquired respectively by James Donald in 1852 and the well-known Benjamin Cribb in 1854.

Cribb and Donald co-operated in subdivision and resubdivision of the allotments with the land under study passing to William Hood in 1876.

It was unusual in those times for a married woman to have sole title to this kind of property, but Frances Jones probably did not have ultimate control over it.

By May 1889 Frances Jones had mortgaged the property to a total of £5000, presumably to finance the erection of the building which Thomas Rees undertook during the year; FDG Stanley, former Queensland Colonial Architect, was the designer.

Rees had also built the adjacent warehouse (South East Queensland Water Board Building) several years earlier.

[1] The building was complete by early 1890 and in February Benjamin Brothers Ltd occupied the western section (Nos 49–51) – using it as a bulk store.

In the mid 1940s Jolly & Batchelor carried on the leather tradition at the building, buying out Roche & Dahl and moving into their premises.

For many years, Jolly & Batchelor operated their business there; in 1964 they left the central city area for South Brisbane where they continue to provide materials and equipment to the leather trade and to the public.

[1] Both rendered and unrendered portions of the building have been altered with the use of aluminium shopfronting at street level, moving the entry into a side bay, and a cantilevered awning.

At the rear the face brick remains unpainted, and the two portions are distinguished by separate gable ends with central loading gantries.