The original building on this site was the Rising Sun Tavern, built in 1820 by Samuel Swain, a tavernkeeper and postmaster who was instrumental in naming the village of Marlton after a local soil used as fertilizer. Around 1850, Joseph Shivers added a three-story hotel to the two-story Rising Sun Tavern. Sara Bareford bought the hotel in 1865, and her son Uzziel was the proprietor.