Arthur Larkin, one of Ellsworth's first businessmen, first operated the Larkin House, but it burned in 1869 and destroyed the entire block. He then decided to build the finest structure possible on the corner of North Main and Lincoln Ave., and the Grand Central Hotel was built and furnished at a cost of $27,000. The hotel featured the finest sidewalk in Kansas, made of a slab of magnesia limestone 12 feet wide. After the shooting of Sheriff Whitney, Texas gambler Ben Thompson held off the Ellsworth police force and citizens from the front of the hotel while his brother Billy rode out of town. The Ellsworth Reporter newspaper office stood in the next building to the east.