The Emporium Building was built in 1898 as the original home of a prestigious furniture company. The Emporium Building housed a wholesale goods distributor and later became a textile manufacturing facility, which fulfilled military contracts.

The two adjacent buildings and the vacant lot were the location of the “Parthenon of Country Music,” which served as the home of the WNOX Mid-day Merry-Go-Round. There are forty residential units and approximately 30,000 square feet of commercial space.