Constructed in 1865 by Elias Brown, this building originally housed a newspaper office, restaurant, and grocery store and was one of several brick "fireproofs" built after a disastrous fire swept through Idaho City that year. Its double-wall brick construction, metal doors and shutters, and reinforced attic floors protected by a layer of sod helped keep its contents from burning in the event of fire. In 1873, the Wong Chong Company purchased the building for use as a Chinese mercantile, and Pon Yam became its longtime proprietor and a prominent elder statesman of Idaho City's Chinese community. When he returned to China in 1904, the Idaho World newspaper praised his liberal and cheerful contributions to public enterprises for which the community had been asked for donations. During the 1860's gold rush, Boise Basin had a diverse and international population, and by 1879 Chinese immigrants made up nearly half of the basin's four thousand people. Most Chinese residents engaged in mining, and their willingness to work claims that other miners considered exhausted helped prolong the basin's gold rush. The Pon Yam Store is the last Chinese owned and occupied building in town, reflecting the contributions these immigrants made to Idaho history and the prosperity they achieved in the American West.