John A. Dalton had established the original Dalton Hotel in the building in 1906, so he already had a history on that corner. Despite bad luck with several fires, he was persistent about owning a hotel on the site.
Since its inception in 1966, MidAmerica Nazarene University has had a dining area but never a student center. In 2016, this private university in Olathe, Kan., changed the course of its history and created a heart of the campus.