Ann Tracey and her husband Charles Wilson probably had this building erected in 1853–1854, on a lot acquired a year earlier. It was formerly the site of a store-residence destroyed in the Great Fire of June 6, 1852. Throughout its history, the warehouse-store has rarely been home to more than one tenant at a time. The first business to set up shop in the building and to fully occupy it was Brown, Swan & Co., a dry-goods wholesaler and haberdashery. It didn't stay long—just three years, from 1854 to 1857.

The construction date is not entirely certain because the building seems to have had only three storeys originally, whereas there were four (the current number) by the time it was sold in 1876. There may have been some rebuilding after another fire or, more likely, a floor was added around 1860.Throughout its history, the building has rarely been occupied by more than one tenant at a time. After passing through the hands of several more dry-goods merchants, in the 1880s and 1890s the space was home to a major Ontario-based foundry that sold stoves and furnaces there. At the turn of the 20th century, a company engaged in food processing took over, using the premises to roast coffee and grind spices, as well as for the sale of the finished products. Starting in the mid-1940s, a chemical-products firm occupied the building; it remained until around 1970. After being left vacant for a short period of time, the warehouse-store was occupied by an ornamental fountain retailer.

Restoration work was undertaken in 1987. Subsequently there was an art gallery and, more recently, a chair importing, wholesale and retail firm. As of 2005, the latter occupied most of the building, while the remainder was rented out as office space.

This warehouse-store occupies the entire lot and there is access to a common alley in the rear. It consists of four storeys, including the ground floor; the topmost floor was built a short time after the rest. The roof is flat. The common walls on both sides and at the rear are brick.

The façade consists of a cut-stone framework designed with optimum fenestration in mind. Narrow vertical elements divide the whole into three arched sections. The ground floor features pilasters and an entablature framing large windows (now plate glass but originally divided into small panes); it is very similar in design to the store-residences built in the previous decades. In 1854, the novel elements were above ground floor: the tall pilasters let the windows steal the show—–a reference to new trends in cast-iron and glass architecture in England and the United States. This particular warehouse-store was apparently among the first examples of this new type in Montreal, yet it retains much of the Neo-Classical spirit of previous decades. The arches on the top floor, built after 1859, seem in keeping with the livelier architecture seen in the 1860s, although a similar composition, designed by architect James H. Springle, was to be found on Le Moyne St. as early as 1856. The wood window frames on the intermediate floors, which blend in with those of the wider arches above, may have been modified when the top floor was added; they are certainly of the period, however.

The many large windows on the upper floors would have let plenty of daylight into showrooms where wholesale goods were displayed, while the ground-floor windows were well suited to a retail shop. The single central entrance is a reminder that the original plans called for a single occupant. Lastly, the use of interior columns (cast-iron on the two lower floors , wood on the floors above) obviates the need for load-bearing walls, affording great flexibility of use.