By the 1850s, Aurora was a major manufacturing and milling center in the Fox River valley.

The Galena–Chicago trail, which carried stagecoaches from Chicago to northwestern Illinois, passed through town and provided a means of commerce.

E. D. Huntoon purchased the vacant lot two years later to rebuild the hotel.

Only the fourth floor remains consistent with the original design for the hotel, but little change has occurred on the exterior of the building.

[1] This hotel was purchased by Nawab Khurram Khan and Dr. Shuja ul-Mulk in 1997 from Besey Koummoutseas.