French Revolutionary War general Marquis de Lafayette conducted a tour of America beginning in August of 1824. He arrived in Portland, Maine on June 25, 1825. The city greeted him on Bramhall's Hill with a speech by Stephen Longfellow, followed by a parade and a rest at Daniel Cobb's Rooming House on Free Street, where rooms were prepared for his lodging.

Daniel Cobb owned several properties on Free Street, including both buildings featured in the photograph. The larger building in the photograph is the rooming house where Lafayette stayed. In later years, the property was referred to as the Shaw House, and the address was 105 Free Street. Both buildings were torn down in the early 1920s to make way for WT Grant's Department Store. As of 2025, the location of the rooming house would have been the Free Street entrance of Reny's, to the right of Marcy's Diner.