It was built in 1869, and is a four-story, 14 bay, brick building with a cast iron front.

[3] Richmond Unionist Franklin Stearns acquired what had once been the Planters Bank Building on Main Street after the American Civil War.

In 1868 he erected rental housing and commercial office space, which was nicknamed the "Stearns block."

His grandchildren's estate sold the property in 1923; the remaining iron front was noted in the Historic American Buildings Survey.

This article about a property in Richmond, Virginia on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.