223 State was built in 1860 in the Italianate style. For many years it housed Brown's Seed Store, an agricultural implements and seed store. By the 1890s, the building to the north - 225 State - had been acquired by Brown and incorporated into his business. This building was also constructed in 1860, and originally used for James McCurdy's wholesale confectionery and foreign fruit business. The decorative window hoods and bracketed cornices seen on both buildings are characteristic of the Italianate style, and both also retain their original limestone storefronts.  

The photo below, from the collection of the Indiana Room of the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, shows the buildings in 1981 when they housed a railroad salvage business. The drawing represents the buildings in about 1890.