The hotel was located on the Wabash River next to the Grand Rapids Dam on land that was originally purchased by Thomas S.

In later years, after manager Glenn Goodart took over operation of the hotel, it gradually began to lose patronage due to incompetent business planning and flooding of the Wabash River in the summers of 1927, 1928, and 1929.

On July 29, 1929, Glenn Goodart burned the Grand Rapids Hotel to the ground by dropping a blowtorch in the basement shop.

Three months before Goodart burned the hotel down, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce had decided to remove the Grand Rapids Dam by revoking funding.

The same year Goodart burned the hotel down he was elected as Finance Commissioner for Wabash County, Illinois.

[2] Thomas S. Hinde purchased the property in 1815 from the United States Government and quickly with other Methodist ministers founded the city of Mount Carmel, Illinois.

According to the article that described the hotel, it had 36 rooms, bathing, boating, various other amusements, and was "...one of the greatest resort centers in the Wabash valley.

Other commentators have suggested that the blowtorch fire started by manager Glenn Goodart may have actually been a cover for an alcohol still explosion in the basement.

The Grand Rapids Hotel burned to the ground on July 24, 1929, due to a suspicious blowtorch incident involving Glenn Goodart.

Goodart became Finance Commissioner for the City of Mount Carmel, Illinois, three months after the Grand Rapids Hotel was destroyed.