The Farmer’s Exchange was a focal point of commerce during the early years of Arab, where farmers traded corn, eggs, butter, hides, and other agricultural products for flour, lard, and other groceries. William “Bill” Harrison operated the Exchange in this building beginning about 1933, although the structure may be older. Basil Cobb began working here while still in high school during the early 1930s. His uncle, L.D. Cobb, bought the business from Harrison about 1939. Basil Cobb continued to work at the Farmer’s Exchange and later purchased it, operating it until his retirement in 1982. In 1945 Harrison sold the building, but not the business, to the Myra Leak Hammond family, who owned it until 1999.