The Kurtz Building was built by a group of businessmen from Harper's Ferry to house grain before shipping it by railroad to the mills. The lot, advantageously situated at the heart of Winchester's commercial downtown, was purchased from the Conrad family, who owned the adjoining (and now razed) Conrad House. Heflebower, Roland, and Williamson received grain from local farmers before shipping it to their mills in western Virginia. By 1846, Robert Conrad repurchased the property and leased the building to various commercial enterprises for the next thirty years. During the Civil War years (1850-1865), Latham and Sons operated a general merchandise and grocery.

The building was purchased by George Kurtz in 1876 for use as a furniture store. A two story frame addition was added in the rear as a varnishing shop. The mansard tower and Victorian embellishments were added in 1888. The main floor housed the furniture business, with the second and third stories used as storage. The tower addition accommodated the funerary functions, a typical sideline business for a furniture maker. Lucy Kurtz, the daughter of George Kurtz, assumed the family business in 1926 and continued it until 1968. The frame addition was demolished and replaced with the existing brick addition. The furniture business was gradually phased out, leaving only the funerary services.

In 1968, she sold the building to the City of Winchester. The space was used for physicians and the Chamber of Commerce, and briefly the county judges occupied the space during the construction of the new Judicial Center built behind the Kurtz Building.

The Kurtz Building is in many ways the flagship property and the defining goal of PHW in the late 1980's and throughout the 1990's. The building was threatened with demolition in the late 1980’s for a demand in parking and "modernazation" of the downtown. PHW purchased the property in 1990, restoring and utilizing the space as a Cultural Center with the determined support of the citizens of Winchester until 2001. The building was purchased from PHW by the Chamber of Commerce and is currently being renovated for use by Susquehanna Technologies.

This property may hold the record for the number of easement documents applied to a single property, as the City of Winchester and Frederick County both included stipulations on the property. The current easements are monitored by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.