The earliest travel routes in the Leeds area followed springs and other water sources, which were essential in the desert, and these first pathways were used by the Paiutes and their ancestors, later also by fur traders, trappers, and explorers. In the 1860s, as Mormons settled southern Utah, the area later known as Leeds was called Road Valley, where springs served as a wagon rest stop, and after Leeds was settled its main street became part of the route linking Salt Lake with St. George and other Mormon settlements. After silver was discovered at nearby Silver Reef in the early 1870s, Leeds developed a close farming and mining relationship with the town, and homes, a church, dance hall, mercantile, boarding house, and other businesses grew up along the main road, helping southwestern Utah prosper for several decades. In the early 1900s, automobile travel made the road through Leeds part of the Arrowhead Trail, which became U.S. Highway 91 in 1926, and after the final stretch from Harrisburg through Leeds to Toquerville Junction was paved in 1931, it became a major route between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Travelers continued to pass through Leeds well into the 1950s, supporting Main Street businesses, but after Interstate Highway 15 was completed parallel to Leeds in 1964, Highway 91 lost its role as the main route, bringing greater quiet to the town center while sharply reducing local business activity. The McMullin House on this corner was built between 1878 and 1881 by Willard G. McMullin and Sons for Brigham Young McMullin and his wife Ada, later became known as the Mormon Hotel because church authorities from Salt Lake City often stayed there, and was later maintained by their daughter Ethyl McMullin George. The Leeds Mercantile was acquired in 1932 by Charles and Kate Allen, who expanded it into a compact department store and community telephone point known locally as Kate's, and after they sold it in 1964, the building was restored in 2008 by Lance and Pamela Fry.