The original building on this site, called the Bullion Block, was constructed in 1882, when Hailey became the county seat of Alturas County after a bitterly fought election with Bellevue and the existing county seat, Rocky Bar. The county rented the building from L.H. Wooden and Texas Angel for $425 per month to use as its first County Court House, with the jail in the basement, and it served in that role for 16 months until the present Court House on South 1st Ave. was completed in 1884. In 1884, Leopold Werthheimer, a German-born clothing merchant, came to Hailey with a stock of goods and opened a men's clothing and furnishings store in the Bullion Block. His business prospered, and in 1887 he bought the building that housed his store. On July 2, 1889, a year and a day before Idaho was admitted to statehood, a disastrous fire that began under suspicious circumstances in a room above the Nevada Chop House on Main Street destroyed virtually the entire Hailey business district, including Werthheimer's Bullion Block. Rebuilding began almost at once, and Werthheimer joined local merchant J.C. Fox and the First National Bank to construct a block of four attached commercial buildings on the site, reopening his business there three months after the fire and continuing to operate at that location until his death in 1913. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has housed Mallory Clothing, Jacob Variety Store, the Vancil Grocery, the Sage Shop and North and Company.