This warehouse is the only tangible reminder of the role that Annapolis played in the lucrative tobacco trade. The building was used to inspect tobacco from local plantations in compliance with a 1747 law designed to ensure the quality of Maryland’s tobacco exports. The prise used to tightly pack tobacco into hogsheads once stood adjacent. A hogshead was a standard-sized wood barrel, 4 feet in length and 30 inches in diameter, that, when filled, weighed up to 1,000 pounds. The diminutive two-story, gable-front brick structure is only one-bay wide, encompassing a loading bay in the upper story. By the late nineteenth century it was adapted for retail use and was a barber shop when acquired by the State in 1968. In recognition of its historic importance, it was restored by the Historic Annapolis Foundation as an interpretative museum.