Matsos Store started life as the Union Bank of Australia Ltd and was built in 1900. It stood in Sheba Lane, which ran down the edge of Kennedys Hill. The Union Bank was the first bank in Broome and was to be a vital part of the financial life of the town for over 40 years.

Sheba Lane was notorious as the Red Light district of Chinatown and was the centre of the Japanese community in Broome. Among the buildings there were opium dens, brothels and mah-jong palaces. Broome was a very open town, catering for the varied needs of hardworking divers throughout the region.

During 1942 the Union Bank branch in Broome found itself trading unprofitably and caught in a rationalization of the banking industry. The year since the depression had not been kind and the pearling industry itself was changing. Plastics were beginning to have an impact on the industry. Nationally, although ninth largest, the Union Bank hadn't been meeting expectations and was the target of a takeover. As a consequence the Union Bank was absorbed into the ANZ group.

In the late 1940s, a fire, which was thought to have been intentionally lit, either by a disgruntled client of the establishment or in response to the war in the Pacific, devastated Sheba Lane. The closeness of the buildings and poor services ensured little could survive and only a few buildings escaped destruction. One of those was Matsos Store. It remained unharmed amid the ruins and remained operating. The building was sold with the redevelopment of Sheba Lane and the ANZ found new premises in Carnarvon Street.

Matsos Store was then purchased by Streeter and Male and relocated to the corner of Anne and Walcott Streets. It became known as the Number 2 Store, a name many locals still recall. When the building became surplus to the requirements of Streeter and Male, the building was transformed into a general store by the Matsumoto family and renamed Matsos Store a name which endures today. Matsos Store was eventually purchased by Lord McAlpine and once again moved to where it stands today on Hamersley Street.