19-21 Monroe Street is a one and one-half-story, gable-front, two over three bay dwelling that lies on the south side of Monroe Street between Park and North Champlain Streets. It bears a different footprint than the building on this site in 1869, the rear ell being reversed in orientation on the Beers Atlas Map. This change is reflected earliest on the 1894 Sanborn Map, as is the addition of the porch on the east elevation.¹

This house was built between 1857 and 1869.² J. B. Robarge, a local blacksmith and carriage maker who owned a number of rental properties in the area, owned 19 Monroe Street in 1869. The house continued to be rented in the early 20th Century by the Hogan and McMahon estate, which had acquired the property by 1890.³ During this time, the home was occupied by workers such as John Gennett of the Wells & Richardson Company, Edwin L. Shinville (a painter), and Jack P. Mason (a paper hanger). In 1919, 19 Monroe Street was purchased by William H. Smith, who lived in the house with boarders until the 1950s.⁴ Smith, like Mason before him, was a paper hanger. One of his tenants in the 1930s and 1940s was Ernest J. Lines, who was the proprietor of a trucking company.⁵