The building is an office. The resident is a cigar maker. The office is added from 1885 to 1896; the complex was not enumerated in the 1880 census and it does not have an address listed on the 1885 publication of the Sanborn. A wooden shotgun at the corner of Canal and N. Villere streets and the wide, open lot is consistent from the 1885 to 1896 Sanborn publications; the 1908 map publication shows multiple new brick buildings constructed; see 1521-39 Canal Street.