Though it is diminutive, when this building was completed in 1884 it accommodated two shops. It is not known when the two shops became one.
In the early years of the 20th century it became the home, in their retirement, of Jean-Baptiste Eteveneaux and his wife Catherine. Both had arrived on the Comte de Paris in 1840 as youngsters. They married in 1847. After living for many years elsewhere in New Zealand they returned to the town of their childhoods. Mrs Eteveneaux ran a sweetshop in the front of the building, and it was still being referred to as her sweetshop 100 years later.
Additions to the rear and side of the building – some quite recent – have been sympathetic to the building’s original character. In 1972, ‘French’ detailing – shutters and a small pediment above the door – was added when deliberate efforts were being made to give Akaroa a spurious French atmosphere. In 2003 further alterations saw this false ‘French’ decoration removed and a verandah added on the street frontage.
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