A two-story brick building once stood on this site. C.W. Hyatt built it in 1883 to house the North Bend Flail, the newspaper he had started the year before. He moved the paper to Fremont in 1888, and soon afterward Charles S.J. Lee bought the building for a general store. A fire damaged the building in 1890 but did not destroy it, and after repairs Lee opened a new racket store there. The business failed, and by 1891 Lee could not pay his debts and faced many lawsuits. In October 1891, he entered the Keeley Institute in Blair for treatment for alcoholism. Even after C.S.J. Lee was no longer involved, the building continued to be known as the Lee Building and housed a butcher, real estate and law offices, a women's hat store, a tailor, and other businesses. In 1908, North Bend's first public library opened in the south half of the Lee Building. In 1913, Peter F. Carey bought it and used much of it for storage for his furniture business. In 1914, Carey tore the Lee Building down and built the present building on the site.