Shelby House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 by the United States Department of the Interior. It served as the railroad station hotel for villages in Shelby and Auglaize counties until 1900, and its hand-hewn beams, mortise and tenon joints, and wooden pins made it typical of the large plain frame hotels that served early travelers in this part of Ohio. On December 5, 1863, prominent Botkins businessman Philip Sheets purchased lot #7 in Botkinsville for $40, and by 1865 the front half of Shelby House was completed. It stood just west of the Dayton and Michigan Railroad, established in 1858 on right-of-way land donated by the village’s namesake, Richard Botkin. The original building had large upstairs sleeping rooms where many patrons could lie down on the floor for the night, and around 1875 a rear addition created small individual rooms upstairs. Many guests were traveling salesmen staying overnight as they journeyed to other towns in the area, renting horse and buggy transportation from liveries down the street. By the turn of the century, better roads, mail order catalogs, a trolley system, and finally the automobile brought the hotel business to an end. The building then became a rooming house until WWII and afterward was used for storage. By 1975 demolition of the deteriorated structure was being considered, but the Botkins Historical Society was formed, purchased the building for a museum, and began repairs to the siding, roof, interior walls, floors, and ceilings. Interest later faded, and by 2015 the building’s future was again uncertain, but renewed community interest led to further interior and exterior restoration and preservation of the society’s collection for future generations. The Sheets family’s influence remains evident in Botkins through the Louise Sheets Fund of the Community Foundation of Shelby County, from which Shelby House has benefited greatly.