After a great fire ravaged this section of the village on January 13, 1888, businessman George W. Longwell purchased the two lots encompassing this block and constructed the present brick Italianate-style building. He and his brother, James M. Longwell, had begun Longwell Brothers Drugs & Groceries in 1850 and had operated out of the old building on this site before it was destroyed by fire. Upon construction and for many years thereafter, the storefront on the left side of the building housed the Longwell Brothers' store, while the one on the right housed the Paw Paw Savings Bank, which had been incorporated in 1886 and failed during the Great Depression. The storefront at the rear of the building along Kalamazoo Street was for many years a barbershop and afterwards a butcher shop, and the second floor consisted of office spaces. Longwell Brothers Drugs & Groceries later passed to George's two sons, Edgar Brush Longwell and George W. Longwell, Jr., who operated as partners until business disagreements caused them to break up the partnership in 1903.