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Portland's dominant architectural firm of the time, Whidden and Lewis, produced the design for this six-story, brick office block, topped with an attic story of Romanesque windows. With its clarity of form and relative absence of ornamentation, the building resembled contemporary office buildings being built in Chicago, IL, during the 1880s. It contained the rusticated stone, first-floor facing and Romanesque windows, broadly reflecting the wide influence of the Brookline, MA-based architect, H.H. Richardson (1838-1886). This was a very early job for Whidden and Lewis, commissioned originally in 1889 by banker William Sargent Ladd and his two sons, Charles and William.

The US National Bank leased a storefront on the Second Street and Stark Street corner; the bank maintained a masonry vault that extended upwards for all six stories. The conglomerate, Balfour-Guthrie and Company, Limited, was another long-term occupant, leasing space on the third floor.