Franklin Stearns, a Richmond businessman, built this imposing procession of iron-front buildings, with engaged Corinthian columns separating arched windows, immediately after the Civil War. Today the building represents the finest in mixed-use urban building design, with retail operations that open directly onto the sidewalk, service businesses on the basement level, and offices on the upper floors. Three of the buildings' fourteen bays open directly into an open-air lobby space. New wall openings on the interior create more marketable expanses of square footage.