Around 1865 blacksmith Jacob J. Deal began building and repairing carriages, wagons, sleighs, and carts in Jonesville, and by 1884 he had a manufacturing complex on this site. His son George became a partner and manager in 1891, and the company was renamed J. J. Deal and Son. Using fire-resistant construction techniques, they built this factory in three phases between 1892 and 1909. When Jacob retired in 1908, George renamed the business Deal Buggy Company, and during this time the business also began making automobiles under the name Deal Motor Vehicle Company. Its models included the Deal Model “R,” which sold for $1,250 and featured a thirty-horsepower engine, speedometer, and windshield. Jacob Deal died in 1914, and the company closed the next year. From 1918 to 1928 the Universal Body Company built automotive bodies here for companies such as Ford and Arrow Line. In the 1930s, Jonesville Sheet Metal Products and Jonesville Screw Products Company used portions of the building. In 1937 Paul A. Jones bought the factory for his Kiddie Brush and Toy Company, whose workers made toys including board games, dolls, furniture, and Susy Goose housekeeping sets with a mop, carpet sweeper, apron, broom, and dustpan. In 1961 the company began making accessories for Barbie dolls. When Kiddie Toy relocated in 1970, the factory closed. After listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, the building was rehabilitated and reopened in 2016 as an apartment building.