Pittsburgh architect Thomas H. Scott (1865–1940) designed this main office building for what was then the Standard Steel Car Company. It is the only structure remaining from the plant. The Renaissance Revival design contrasts with the workers' housing it overlooks. The U-shaped, buff brick building has hipped-roof pavilions lined with segmental-arched windows, with keystones separated by pilaster strips. Its three stories rest on a raised basement.
The Standard Steel Car Company built passenger railcars and automobiles intermittently between 1916 and 1923. Construction of the factory buildings began in April 1902. The first all-metal railcar rolled off the line in October of the same year. In the next year, 12,337 railcars were produced. Machine, blacksmith, and pattern shops were all housed in old pickle factory buildings on the property. Standard Steel spawned a subsidiary, the Lyndora Land and Improvement Company, to build hundreds of workers' houses adjacent to the plant. The town of Lyndora, originally consisting of one hundred frame flats that each housed six families, was constructed almost overnight in the winter of 1902–1903. It became a hotbed of labor unrest. In 1930, Standard Steel merged with the Pullman Company, but by the 1980s, the railcar industry was shrinking. The entire works closed in 1982, putting over 3,000 Butler residents out of work. Today, a shopping center and office park are located on the acreage of the former plant.