Following the Civil War, German teenager Charles Zimmermann came to America, settled in St. Louis, and learned the trade of a butcher. In 1881, Zimmermann built a small combination home and store on this block. Although the estimated construction cost of his first home and store was only $700, new building materials were available to him; the year before, a Cleveland, Ohio, company had begun mass producing house paint from a standardized formula and shipping it to markets across the country. Zimmermann prospered, and in 1895 he was able to build a larger storefront and home with an estimated construction cost of $2,200. Its sophisticated cast iron storefront was produced by the local Union Iron and Foundry, which was located on South Second Street in the Frenchtown or Kosciusko neighborhood.