The oldest portion of the complex was built about 1891 by Hall, Gallagher & Foulke's Shoe Company, later renamed George W. Hall & Company. In 1906 the building was purchased by R.B. Grover & Company, a Brockton-based shoemaker founded in 1889 whose factory had been destroyed by fire. Grover was best known for producing the "Emerson shoe", and renamed itself in 1901. The company was one of Rockland's biggest employers, enlarging the premises in 1906, and again in 1909 and 1916. The company failed during the Great Depression in 1931.
