The majority of N. Sycamore Street's Federal commercial structures were organized much like this three-story brick store. Commercial space filled the first floor, storage was in the cellar, and a residence occupied the upper two floors. Shelves lined the wall of an unheated, circular-ended first-floor salesroom with a door at the rear leading to a heated counting room. A secondary front entrance opened to a side passage that had a door to the first-floor counting room as well as a grand staircase to the residential section. This entrance to an upper-floor apartment from the street front was atypical for the large commercial buildings erected in the first years following the 1815 fire. More often, the entrance was through a rear alley into a yard that was lined with kitchen, stable, and carriage house.