Designed by a Hartford, Connecticut, firm and constructed by T.F. Howard for Fredrick Judd, the Judd Block used native basalt stone and brick and reflected East Coast tastes in the 1890's. Originally it had more ornamentation at the parapet level, while the strong lintels over the first and second story windows showed a trend away from the more fussy Italianate style. Its one-over-one double-hung windows were capped by basalt lintels with a keystone element that gave the building a Georgian style look. In an attempt to modernize the building, the parapet level was removed and replaced with unadorned brick. In its early years, prominent doctors and lawyers of Pendleton maintained offices on the second floor. The Judd Block replaced an earlier three story wooden hotel on the lot, the Villard House, which had been built by railroad magnate Henry Villard in the 1880's to serve railroad and stage traffic. Villard later sold off his hotels when he bought the Edison Lamp Company and the Edison Machine Works, combined them to form Edison General Electric Company, and that company in turn became the General Electric Company. By 1893, David Horne sold the vacant lot for ten thousand dollars. T.F. Howard, the contractor for the Judd Block, also designed the Judd Home at 3 NE Ellis Avenue, and both the block and the home were completed about the same time.