The Poole building won a NCAIA Merit Award in 1956. According to the company history, “The Caterpillar Tractor Company, seeking to improve the sales and service of its products in eastern North Carolina, and believing the concentrated efforts of two dealers would better serve a territory the size of the Old North State, established a second dealer, with headquarters in Raleigh. The management of Caterpillar chose James Gregory Poole, Sr., and his uncle, William Lewis Gregory, to form the new eastern NC dealership. Gregory-Poole Equipment Company began operations on April 1, 1951 at 3623 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, and at a branch in New Bern.” The modernist design provided by G. Milton Small Jr. provided a striking image with bold expanses of glass that displayed the equipment within the show room. It stands across Hillsborough Street from another modernist landmark of the era, the Dorton Arena (Matthew Nowicki). The character-defining glass walls were subsequently filled in.