The one-and-a-half story frame structure housing the Millinery and Dressmaking Shop was built in Roseboom New York about 1825. Like many small buildings in country villages, it was put to various uses over the years.

By the middle of the 19th century, a ladies hat trimming and/or dressmaking shop might be found in a small New York State town. It would be a means for a widow or otherwise single woman to eke out an existence. In addition to the wares she made to order, she did alterations, and she would supply small items for the home seamstress.

The shop was also her home, and she left only to go to the store, the post office, the station (for goods arriving by train), to church, to a customer's house in the village, or to her grave.