During World War II, commercial and domestic construction practically ceased as material and manpower were redirected to the fight against fascism. After the war, pent up demand brought a mini construction boom, and with very few lots left on the 100 and 200 blocks of Main, downtown expanded west. Ravalli County Deputy Clerk and Recorder Anna Read owned this property in 1947, when contractor Lyle Rasmussen built a one-story restaurant building here. It later housed an auto parts store and then the Sears Department Store. The modest brick structure reflects the postwar shift away from ornamentation as the architectural movement toward simplicity, begun in the 1930s, became firmly established after World War II. Its large display windows echo earlier Hamilton business blocks by attracting pedestrians, and like those earlier buildings it stands directly against the sidewalk rather than leaving space for landscaping or parking, while striated multicolored brick provides almost its only decoration.