This building on South Acline Street was completed in 1912 for the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britian and Ireland. Imperial had buyers on all flue-cured tobacco markets in the U.S. The Lake City plant then redried, processed, and packaged the tobacco. The processed tobacco was then shipped on railcars to the ports in Charleston or Wilmington, then onto England, where the price for tobacco was significantly higher.

The Lake City plant continued to improve with new multiple new additions. By 1950, the Imperial Company processed and shipped at least 150,000 pounds of green tobacco every 10 hours. Even plant officials could not keep up with the raw production volume during peak season, so the plant operated 24 hours a day.

In 1960, the building was sold to T.S. Ragsdale and Company, which already owned a large tobacco warehouse at the ROB site. In 1971, operations at the Imperial building ceased due to policy and cultural changes.