When fire swept through Deadwood in 1894, it destroyed the original two-story wood-frame building on this prominent corner. Seth Bullock and his business partner Sol Star saw opportunity in the ruins. Between 1894 and 1896, they converted a warehouse into an elegant three-story hotel at a cost of $40,000. The building rose in Italianate and Victorian style, featuring a grand lobby, large dining room, sample rooms where traveling salesmen could display their wares, and sixty-three luxury sleeping rooms on the upper floors. Two banks of skylights illuminated the interior corridors with natural light. Iron and brass beds furnished each room, accompanied by solid oak furniture. For a frontier mining town that had been lawless just two decades earlier, the Bullock Hotel represented civilization's arrival.

Seth Bullock was no ordinary hotelier. He had arrived in Deadwood in 1876, the same year Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead at a poker table nearby. As the town's first sheriff, Bullock brought order to one of America's most lawless places through sheer force of personality. His steely gaze became legendary. But Bullock's most famous friendship developed far from Deadwood. He and Theodore Roosevelt met in the Dakota Territory and formed a bond that lasted their lifetimes. When Roosevelt became president, Bullock served as a captain in Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War. The hotel restaurant, Bully's, takes its name from Roosevelt's favorite exclamation and the nickname Bullock earned from his famous friend.

The hotel changed dramatically over the decades. The Aryes family purchased the property and in 1976 converted the elegant hotel into a hardware store, selling off the original furnishings at auction. The building served this mundane purpose until 1991, when new owners undertook extensive renovation to restore its Victorian character. Working from historical clues uncovered during construction, they recreated the original atmosphere: stripped and restained woodwork, repaired Victorian ceiling patterns, and installed forty-eight-inch solid brass chandeliers chosen from period replicas. The sixty-three original rooms became twenty-eight, each now with private bath. Some feature Jacuzzis and wet bars. The result is a larger, more luxurious version of Bullock's 1895 vision.

Contrary to popular belief, Seth Bullock did not die at the hotel. He passed away at his home at 28 Van Buren Street on September 23, 1919. Yet guests, workers, and tourists have reported encounters with his ghost for decades. Visitors describe feeling touched or hearing someone call out. Employees taking breaks suddenly feel a presence that sends them back to work immediately. Apparitions and unexplained orbs appear in photographs. Staff joke that Bullock continues to play host, ensuring his hotel runs properly even from the afterlife. Ghost tours operate regularly, drawing paranormal investigators and skeptics alike. In 2015, the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures featured the Bullock Hotel in a special Halloween episode. Whether or not one believes in spirits, the stories add another layer to a building already rich with frontier history.