Discussions in the county government of establishing a fire district ordinance requiring masonry construction in the commercial core of Hilo prompted the erection of this frame two-story commercial building by Judge W. S. Wise. With the passage of the ordinance, its bracketed cornice and shiplap siding, typical of many turn-of-the-twentieth-century structures here, signaled the end of an era. Initially the building housed three stores on the ground floor and a hotel on the second. In 1927, the second floor was converted into professional office use.