In 1886, Antoine Novotny, one of the Bohemian founders of this community, built a bar on this site. Novotny's Saloon became the social center of the city's south side and headquarters of the Traverse City Hustlers semi-pro baseball team. In 1939, William H. Dill purchased the business, and its name changed to Dill's. In the years that followed, an adjacent meat market and vegetable stand were added to the establishment, and the second floor housed both the Salvation Army and a dance hall. On April 22, 1978, a fire destroyed the original wood-frame building, and a near replica completed ten weeks later continued as one of Traverse City's social centers.