Captain Edmund McKenna, a Civil War veteran, began construction of this two-story rock building on May 27, 1897. Its stone was quarried locally and hauled to the site by ox-driven carts. After its completion in 1899, the building featured galvanized iron fronts, many windows, and an ornate architectural style common in the period. A large 8-foot-wide porch ran the length of the front, providing a cool, shady place for visitors to rest. Facing the St Louis and San Francisco tracks, the first floor housed three stores: the middle unit was the Racket Store, a low-priced dry goods store often called a Five and Dime; to its right was a millinery store; and on the north end Noble and Birds drug store became one of the most frequented stores in the area. On February 2, 1900, Tom T. Varner, a prominent lawyer from Cameron, moved the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Indian Territory from Cameron to the building's second floor in Poteau by packing the entire court onto a horse-drawn wagon. Until Statehood in 1907, the courthouse there handled many notorious bandits, outlaws, and law-breakers from across what would become Eastern Oklahoma.