Prior to the Civil War, Lawrence lay in the midst of the vicious Missouri/Kansas Border War and this old hotel was burned down twice in the mid 1800s.

The original hotel, called the Free State Hotel, was built in 1855 by settlers from the New England Emigrant Aid Society. It was named the Free State Hotel to make clear the intent of those early settlers -- which was that Kansas should come into the Union as a free state. The Free State Hotel was intended as temporary quarters for those settlers waiting for their homes to be built.

On January 3, 1855, Colonel Shalor Eldridge arrived in Kansas City from New England where he purchased the American House, which General Pomeroy had bought for the Emigrant Aid Society.

This house was the headquarters of the Free-State men. In early 1856, Shalor leased the Free State Hotel at Lawrence, equipping it as a first-class hotel.

The historic Eldridge Hotel in Lawrence was burned twice during Bleeding Kansas days. It has been rebuilt and renovated several times and continues to serve guests today. Kathy Weiser, March, 2009.

But, just months later on May 21, 1856 the hotel was attacked and destroyed by Sheriff Samuel J. Jones and his posse. Jones, leading a group of pro-slavery forces, aimed a cannon at the hotel and burnt it to the ground.

In 1857, Colonel Eldridge, along with his brothers Edsin, Thomas and James re-erected the hotel at a cost of $80,000, vowing that it would be rebuilt again if it was destroyed.

Perhaps his statement was a prediction, as the hotel was again destroyed in 1863 when it was attacked by Quantrill and his raiders. 

William Clarke Quantrill, an Ohio native, had joined the Confederate forces several years prior but was unhappy with their reluctance in aggressively prosecuting Union troops. Therefore, the young man took it upon himself to take a more aggressive course with his own-guerilla warfare.

In 1862, Quantrill began his infamous raiding career in western Missouri and then across the border into Kansas by plundering the towns of Olathe, Spring Hill and Shawnee. His raids gained the attention of other desperados.

By 1863, Quantrill recruited others who joined his company including "Bloody” Bill Anderson and the James brothers. In the summer of 1863 they set their sites on Lawrence, Kansas - the site of their most infamous destruction.

Early on the morning of August 21, 1863, Quantrill along with his murderous force of about 400, descended on the still sleeping town of Lawrence. Incensed by the Free-State headquarters town, Quantrill set out on his revenge against the Jayhawker community. In this carefully orchestrated early morning raid he and his band, in four terrible hours, turned the town into a bloody and blazing inferno unparallel in its brutality. Quantrill and his bushwhacker mob of raiders began their reign of terror at 5:00 a.m., looting and burning as they went, bent on total destruction of the town, then less than 3,000 residents. By the time it was over, they had killed approximately 180 men and boys, and left Lawrence nothing more than smoldering ruins.

The proud City of Lawrence was determined to rebuild and quickly adopted the motto "from ashes to immortality.” Using an original cornerstone from the burned hotel, Colonel Eldridge promptly rebuilt the hotel, which opened again in 1865 with a new name -- The Hotel Eldridge.