Constructed in 1914 by J.D. McElveen and named for his first daughter, Frances Viola, the Hotel Frances was tied to one of Safety Harbor’s founding families through McElveen’s wife, Helen Campbell, daughter of the city’s first mayor, George W. Campbell. It was one of the few buildings to survive the fire that devastated downtown Safety Harbor on September 2, 1917, only months after the city was incorporated, when the entire block east of the hotel on Main Street was destroyed and mules helped residents haul out their belongings. The original hotel included a wooden walkway to a separate kitchen and washroom building. It also endured the destructive 1921 hurricane, though the barn and kitchen were lost, and afterward a new kitchen, pantry, dining room, and six upstairs bedrooms were added. After the Depression, it was renamed the Safety Harbor Hotel, and with upper and lower rooms reached by open-air hallways, it continued over time to serve as a restaurant, boarding house, rental apartments, and shops.