Built on Main Street (now State Route 29) in the late 19th century, it is one of the village's oldest extant commercial buildings, and it has been named a historic site.

[3]: 14  Businesses were well established on Main Street downtown by 1840,[3]: 37  but little survives of that period's commercial district,[4] as multiple great fires afflicted the community.

[4] Mechanicsburg had always served as the commercial center for farmers in the nearby countryside, but the boom of the late nineteenth century saw its commerce expand substantially; by 1890, one could buy drugs and jewelry downtown, as well as groceries and dry goods.

[5]: 5  The Hobby Shop building was typical of the period; built in 1880, it was home to Trader's Bank and to Schetter's Jewelry Store at different times.

It was part of a multiple property submission of approximately twenty buildings,[1] scattered throughout the village in such a low concentration that a historic district designation was not practical.