Constructed on a newly laid out street and on land that had most recently been the Newgate State Prison, the wood-frame building at 6 Weehawken Street has a long and varied history. Opened in 1834 by the City as part of an open-air market called the Greenwich Market, its design was purposeful. The deep eaves of the roof protected the produce from the weather. The market lasted just a decade. In 1848 the building was bought and repurposed by a boat builder for his business (and also probably a saloon). The proximity to the water and its related businesses and sea-going, likely hard-drinking populations, made this an ideal location for a tavern.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, it served variously as an insurance brokerage, cigar store, and pool hall. By the 1920s it was “Billie’s Original Clam Broth House.” Further tenants in the 20th century included a sort of clothing/accessory shop for dock workers, a trucking company, and a couple of gay bars.

In late 2016 the building's owner, Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois, architectural historian and son of the famed sculptor, Louise Bourgeois, announced he was giving the building, and more land it was on back to the original Manhattanites. Having bought it in 2006 for $2.2 million, he was gifting it to a nonprofit controlled by the Lenape tribe. A few years later, it is unclear if the transfer of property went through.