For more than five decades, at a time when people still "dressed for dinner" the Brook Manor Restaurant was synonymous with fine dining. Before it became a restaurant, it was a private home built for one of the most wealthy residents of North Attleborough.

That wealthy citizen was Abiel Codding, Jr. (1817-1901), a silversmith who formed a partnership with Ira Richards in 1841. Their firm was called Richards, Codding & Co. Abiel married Anna Maria Richards (1819-1899), the daughter of Calvin Richards and Olive Daggett Blackington, on October 28, 1841. Abiel Codding, Jr. went on to become President of the Attleborough Savings Bank at 144 Washington Street in downtown North Attleborough. Codding also served as President of the North Attleborough Gaslight Company, as well as a director of the First National Bank of North Attleborough.

Sometime between 1858 and 1876 Abiel Codding, Jr. constructed an Italianate mansion at 116 Elm Steet. After Codding's death in 1901, various members of the Laverly family owned the home. During 1948, Ori Scarlatelli and Jack Ippolito purchased the property and opened it as restaurant called the Brook Manor. Over the years the restaurant was greatly expanded with the addition of wings and nearly all of the grounds became a parking lot.

On June 19, 2003 the building was sold to Jan Concepts who turned it into an establishment called the Country Inn Restaurant which ceased to exist some four years later. On September 26, 2007 new owners purchased the building, greatly renovating it - particularly on the exterior - and opened it as the Bella Vista Restaurant and Grille, specializing in Italian Cusine. The Bella Vista disappeared almost before the dessert course could be served. The building has been vacant since 2009, and the future of the once proud Italianate Mansion that was reduced to selling "Italian Cusine" remains uncertain.