For over a century the "Sanborn Block" has been a focal point of social and business activity in Meredith Village. The building represents the gradual conversion of a house into commercial use. The original house faced onto Water Street, and its five bay, 2½-story, twin-chimney form with a rear two-story ell is still very much in evidence.

Dr. George Sanborn was the principal town doctor in the late 1800s and operated his practice from this building. Dr. Sanborn's son George Freeman Sanborn founded a printing company in 1871 and the town's community newspaper, The Meredith News, in 1880. Both were housed in the north annex of the building.

In 1882, he offered a room next to the newspaper office to launch the Meredith Public Library, and he served as the town's first librarian.

In 1884, he opened a drug store on the opposite corner of Water and Main Street, and in 1909 he added the projecting storefront to his home and relocated the store. On either side of the diagonal entrance, he installed leaded glass lights with stained glass pharmacy symbols that still decorate the entrance to the old "Sanborn Drugs."