William Payne founded the Village of Saukville in 1846. Two years later, Payne built a hotel at the busy crossroads of the Dekorra Military Road and the Green Bay Trail. His hotel served as a stagecoach inn and tavern for those traveling between the Milwaukee/Chicago areas and Green Bay. Like many other inns, it served the local population as a site of community dances and civic meetings in its third floor ballroom.

The building is a typical Greek Revival stagecoach inn. A low pitch roof with returns, a raking cornice and front entrance with sidelights are all characteristics of this style. A large wooden veranda once stretched across the entire façade, reached from the street by two sets of stairs. The curving walnut stairway banister is the most distinctive feature of the interior.

In 1917, owners converted the building into apartments and rented to tenants, until a major remodeling in the 1990s. The building remains privately owned, please respect the privacy rights of its occupants.