George Watts emigrated from England in 1870 at age twenty-one and began working for glassware and porcelain merchant Thomas Massey. Watts became the shop’s sole owner in 1890, and George Watts and Sons remains one of Milwaukee’s oldest and most distinguished retailers, still operated by family descendants. Built in the Mediterranean Revival style, the two-story building has richly ornamented terra-cotta details from the American Terra Cotta Company of Chicago that identify its construction during the 1920s, when terra-cotta decoration was at its height of popularity for its low cost, ornamental potential, and easily cleaned surface.