The structure was designed by Louis A. Simon, the Supervising Architect of the United States Treasury Department, and was built from 1939 to 1940. It was expanded to an H shape with a sympathetic addition in 1966. It originally housed the administrative offices of the White Mountain National Forest, a division of the United States Forest Service and the United States Department of Agriculture. The building's interior reflects this intended use, with a pair of lobby murals on forestry-related themes, executed by Philip Guston and Musa McKim. These murals are now housed in the James Cleveland Federal Building in Concord, New Hampshire.
