The building, also called Hotel of the Chamber of Commerce, was built between 1760 and 1765 on plans designed by Pierre Hue, a Bridges and Roads engineer. It comprised two wings defining an inner courtyard, connected in 1785 by an elegant gallery with columns. It remains a lasting sign of the city’s prosperity and of the flourishing maritime trade the Protestant traders and shipowners initiated in the 18^th century.

Founded in 1719, the Chamber of Commerce was always run alternately by Catholics and Protestants. Despite the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the activity and the wealth of the ‘religionists’benefited from extensive toleration from the authorities.

Among Protestant residents, Jacques Rasteau was first to own a boat and leave for Louisianna in 1731, then Jehan Seignette who belonged to an ancient family of famous doctors and apothecaries, and also Pierre Gabriel Admyrauld, one of the greatest Rochelais traders in the 18^th century, who sent ships to Canada and Santo Domingo as well as to France and the Bourbon islands and even to the East Indies. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries Théophileas Bahut, Pierre-Wladimir Môrch and his son Christian Môrch played a crucial role in creating and developing La Pallice harbour.