Opened in April 1855, the five-story, 240-room De Soto House was considered the largest and most luxurious hotel in the West. Abraham Lincoln spoke from its balcony in 1856, Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, and Ulysses S. Grant maintained his 1868 presidential campaign headquarters there. By 1880, Galena's prosperity had faded and the hotel's two upper stories were removed.