Lister decided to have a stone block building erected on the corner of King William and James Streets in 1886. Lister Chambers, as the building was known, was a stone row house standing four-storeys tall. It was built by the Webber Bros. The business venture was considered a financial risk, as the location was not a commercial centre of the city, and it was feared the retail complex would fail. In addition to the speculative location, the city, at the completion of the building’s construction, entered a period of depression which paralyzed municipal finances, leaving the city practically bankrupt. In time, things turned around and before long, the Lister Block became one of the most desirable central business locations in Hamilton.

The building was rather modern for the time it was constructed. It had a boiler house, new methods of heating, and elevators. In 1922, an arcade was erected. The property was one of the most active commercial areas in the city. When it opened, the building was filled to capacity, having 150 tenants. In 1892, Joseph Lister died, and was buried in Hamilton Cemetery. The property was given to his two son-in-laws, Stephen Franklin Lazier and Robert C. Freeman, who managed the estate until 1911, when Joseph Edmund Lister, grandson of the founder, took over. During his career, he made many improvements right up to the time that the building was destroyed by fire.

On February 23, 1923, the cherished Lister building of downtown Hamilton was struck by one of the most destructive and spectacular fires ever seen by the city. At 2:36 a.m., police constable Ross Wright, noticed the flames while patrolling the area on foot. The building had long been regarded as dangerously flammable. Despite the exterior being made of quarried limestone, the building went up in a flash because the interior walls and floor were wooden. The old fashioned design allowed the fire to spread rapidly across the building via the long corridors which were not equipped with fire walls. Several fire hydrants on the streets in the area were frozen because of low February temperatures, which gave the fire added time to burn. Charcoal fires had to be lit beside the hydrants before the water would flow. When it did, the initial pressure was severely low causing precious moments to be lost. The Herald newspaper gave an account of the event: "the men were sheathed in ice as the spray from the hose froze on them as fast as it fell. The water sprayed on the burning building soon became a mass of ice, the street was filled with water that froze, embedding the hose lines and hindering free handling, and the ladders became so coated with ice that it took 20 or 30 men to move a ladder. In addition to this, the street car lines were buried under ice, and the service demoralized".  Further reports said that the heat was so intense that the water, which was poured on the structure did not freeze, but drained rapidly away.

The loss on the building alone, not including the destruction suffered by many of the tenants, was estimated at around $400,000. The building was covered by only $100,000 in insurance. W.J. Whitelock, building inspector, ordered that the burned shell be demolished. The walls on the King William Street side sagged and pieces of masonry, weighing hundreds of pounds, kept falling into the street, posing a danger to passerbys.

After the ruins of the burned building were removed, the site was cleaned by contractors Pigott –Healy Construction, at a cost of $300,000. The old buildings adjoining the site were patched up at the places where the effects of the fire were noticeable. The foundations of the adjoining buildings, made of stone masonry, were damaged by the intense heat of the fire. New foundations were needed to uphold the weight of the building. Considerable sections of the exterior walls had to be patched with new brick masonry as the old brick and mortar had also been adversely affected by the heat of the fire.

After the fire, an inquest was held to determine a cause. It was during this time that many of its contributing factors were brought to light. The fire marshal believed the fire to have originated in the one-storey building that comprised the rear of the Hudson Fashion Shop. A great deal of evidence was given by the men who were engaged in laying a new floor in the Hudson store, that corroborated the marshals belief. They maintained that the old floor was oil soaked to a considerable depth, and that the night before the fire, the heat in the store was atrocious. The workmen reported using flammable materials (thinners, fillers, driers, and gasoline) on the new floor. This strengthened the theory that spontaneous combustion could have been responsible. Various tenants in the building had reported smelling a strong odor of gasoline that seemed to be emanating from the rear of the building. An employee of the Hudson Shop, also testified that the store’s floor was oil-soaked and that the workmen laying the new floor were using power tools. The friction, coupled with the oil-soaked floor would produce the gasoline odor. Mr. Dunkelman, owner of the Hudson store, also reported leaving a light burning when he closed at nine. There was a terrific heat coming from the radiators. Also, the debris and waste from the work on the floor was dumped at the rear of the building and the electric wiring in the building had been condemned by electrical inspectors nine years previous, however, the faulty wiring was never replaced. All these factors contributed to the destructive blaze.

Later that year, a new office / retail block which accommodated a wide range of merchants, service businesses, professionals, and agencies, was erected for Joseph Lister. Joseph Lister’s proclaimed ambition was to provide the most modern and central accommodation for small merchants at the lowest possible rents. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Bernard Prack and built by Pigott Construction Company. The subcontractors and suppliers for the new building were: Doolittle Russle Ltd., cement, stone and sand; Burlington Steel Co., reinforcing steel; Frost Steel and Wire, steel spirals; Hobbs Manufacturing Company Ltd., glass; National Fireproofing Co, hollow tile; FG, Roberts and Co., painting; Wood Electric Company, electrical work; Hill Bros., plastering; W. Newell, plumbing; Drake-Avery Company, heating; G. & J. Inring, roofing and sheet metal; Kent and Garving Company, marble and tile; Hamilton Bridge Works Company, structural steel; Consumers Lumber Company, stone cutting; Federal Terra Cotta, terra cotta work.

Many citizens were surprised by the speedy erection of the new building. It took a mere 37 ½ working days to pour the skeleton of the seven storey building. Between September 21 and November 13, 1924, 2,911 cubic yards of concrete were poured. The building has a frontage of 139 feet on James Street, 105 feet on King William Street, and a lot that extends to a depth of 317.5 feet. There was additional space for parking at the rear of the building. The complex occupies a total space of 32,900 square feet. The entrance was changed from King William to James Street.

The Lister building, although in need of renovations and improvements, remains quite faithful to its original design. It was designed in the style of architecture known as Classic Renaissance. The exterior has a series of terra cotta pilasters on the first floor with an entablature at the third floor level. The stores were located between the pilasters. The exterior, from the third floor to the sixth floor, is finished with tapestry brick having copper spandrels between the windows. At the top of the building there is an entablature in terra cotta with cartouches in the frieze. This is topped with a cheneau and terra cotta. All the store fronts are finished in copper and have wrought iron grills over the windows to the basement.  The structure is made of reinforced concrete frame clad in brick, terra cotta, and sheet copper.

The L-shaped interior arcade was claimed to be the first in Hamilton, at the time of its opening. Inside there is an arcade or inside street running through the building. It is 15 feet wide from James Street to King William Street. The arcade is decorated in plasterwork with pilasters and has domed panels in the ceiling. There are skylights, which provide additional natural lighting. The floor of the arcade is finished in marble with a centre of panels of a lighter shade. The baseboards around the walls are finished in a dark marble.

The stores are of various shapes and sizes, but all are finished uniformly with colour-mix hard finish concrete floors, and the latest type of semi indirect lighting fixtures. The interior woodwork on the ground floor is of chestnut mission finish. The second floor is quite similar to the ground floor except that there is an no arcade, but a rather wide and well-lit corridor, giving easy access to approximately thirty upper shops. Twenty of these upper shops were given storefronts lining the L-shaped internal corridor. They had windows overlooking James and King William Streets. The floor is of terrazzo laid out in panels and designed borders. When the building was occupied, the four upper floors housed offices, while the fifth floor was occupied by professional tenants, such as physicians, dentists, chiropractors, and beauty specialists. The sixth floor was occupied by offices and sample rooms for both permanent and transient use. The upper floors are finished in white hard plaster with chestnut trim, in natural colours. The floors are finished in concrete, the corridors being in red with black panel borders. The corridors are wide and brightly lit. The basement is laid out for a bowling alley, pool and billiard recreation club room and barber shop.

The downtown urban renewal scheme, starting with the erection of a new city hall gradually shifted the focus of civic and cultural activity away from James Street North, and away from commercial centers like the Lister Block. The retail shops along James Street also suffered financial difficulties during the 1970s when Lloyd D. Jackson Square shopping centre was built.

On May 23, 1984, the Spectator reported that a 3-metre section, weighing several hundred pounds, had fallen two storeys, breaking into shards on the pavement. Len King, building commissioner for the city, issued a compliance order under the Building Code Act. It was suspected that moisture had seeped in behind the façade over the years. Freezing and thawing created hairline cracks and deteriorated the mortar, which held the façade to the building. This would have caused the section to fall. The building was deteriorating and needed repairs.

In June of 1985, Sam Matsos, president of Corham Development, purchased five downtown properties whose total value was $5,000,000. The buildings included in the purchase were: the Lister Block, Zellers, and the Mills store. Only four years later, the complex was again sold to a large Toronto area developer, Metrus. The value of the sale was estimated at $1,000,000. In the early part of the 1990s, eviction notices were issued to all the tenants of the Lister Building (the beauty salon, the hearing aid shop, the drug store, the music store, and the optometrist), as well as to tenants in adjoining stores (Fabricland, Marvel Beauty Salon, and Pioneer Cleaners).

On November 15, 1994, Hamiltonians led by a group of local artists rallied together in protest against the eviction of the tenants of the Lister block. It was feared that the company owning the building would have it demolished. The fears were based on a demolition clause in the lease, which stated that the agreement could be terminated on 3 to 6 months notice if the owners intended to tear the building down.

The building has since remained vacant despite numerous proposals for reuse. In 1995, city council voted in favor of a special historical designation for the building. That same year, plans were put forth to turn the Lister building into student housing for McMaster University and Mohawk College students. These plans were never realized. In the latter part of the 1990s, the Lister Block became a home to transients living in the downtown core. Clothing and graffiti were found inside, indicating that as many as five youths had been staying in the building.

In September 1996, three separate fires damaged the Lister building. The first broke out in an old third floor office. Paper streamers were added to aid in the spreading of the fire. Damage was estimated at $7,000. Later, two smaller fires were reported. They had been set in a mattress on the second floor. Damage was again estimated at $7,000. It was suspected that the fires were intended to destroy the building.