Once the vaccine for Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) was proven to work, the production of the vaccine was added to the mandate of the U.S. Public Health Service’s Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory. As awareness of RMSF grew, particularly among the Western states, the laboratory could hardly keep up with the orders. The schoolhouse was too small for research and vaccine production, so in 1927, the State of Montana appropriated $60,000 for a bigger building actually designed for these purposes. The owner of the rented Canyon Creek Schoolhouse would get their property back.

The new building was designed to protect workers and the town. Rounded seams where the walls met the floors gave ticks one less place to hide. Mirrors enabled workers to examine themselves for ticks and there were plenty of autoclaves to heat workers' clothes to kill ticks hiding in the seams. A moat was dug around the building to keep ticks in, and the property was surrounded by fencing to keep animals and people out.

Building One was larger than the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory and full of modern laboratory amenities when it opened in May 1928. There were special rooms for refrigeration, tick-rearing, and vaccine-production. And soon special animal rearing and holding buildings were built at the back of the building.