Financed by Judge Nathan Goff, Jr., who named it for his father, Waldo P. Goff, this large brick and stone structure originally contained a bank and seven shops on its first floor and hotel rooms above. The first floor, with arched openings, is clad with rusticated stone. The vivid orange brick of the walls above was produced by Clarksburg's Glen View Brick Company.

The building defies easy stylistic classification. Classical details are combined with hints of Spanish, even mildly Moorish, components. These are particularly pronounced at the upper levels, where four pyramidal-capped square towers, each containing an open loggia, rise above the six-story mass to provide punctuation marks on the skyline.

When the hotel opened, an enthusiastic patron claimed that it was “not surpassed in its appointments and service by the Waldorf of New York, or Willard's of Washington.” From 1964 to 1969, it housed the Clarksburg branch of Salem College. Various state and federal agencies now maintain offices in the building.