Historic Wolf Hotel in Ellinwood getting new life with new owner

Ellinwood is one of those small towns in Kansas that doesn’t have a motel.

But it does have the Wolf Hotel, a late-19th-century Italianate building that for years was a stopping point for cowboys and salesmen traveling by rail. In more recent decades, it has been an antiques store and the gathering point for Ellinwood’s underground tunnel tours.

Last week, Chris McCord, a 26-year-old Ellinwood native, became the building’s new owner.

“I’ve always admired the Wolf building,” McCord wrote in an e-mail to The Eagle. “I was shopping in the antique store in November when the owner, Bill Starr, also a friend, mentioned I should buy the building. I just laughed. I never imagined myself being able to own such a phenomenal building.”

But McCord bought the 119-year-old building and is hoping to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast and restaurant. The Wolf Hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

“I love seeing the potential in a building,” McCord said.

The Wolf was a key building in the development of Ellinwood. It sits across from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, which reached the community in 1872.

The community, less than a two-hour drive northwest of Wichita, was largely settled in 1878 by German Protestant immigrants with last names like Bockemohle, Steckel, Manglesdorf, Clemm and Wolf. The influx of German residents may have influenced the construction of the underground tunnels.

The tunnels were dug as a way of opening up business space, historians have said, and the Germans who founded the town liked the perceived efficiency of basements and underground walkways.

In Kansas, more than a half-dozen communities boast a system of underground tunnels and shops, including Caldwell, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Leavenworth, Douglass and Fort Scott. Ellinwood, though, has created a quirky tourist stop from its underground tunnels.

The tunnels originally ran on both sides of Ellinwood’s Main Street for two blocks, connecting Jung’s Barber Shop with the public bathhouse, Wolitz Shoe Shop, John Wever’s Sample Room, Petz Meat Storage and Drummer’s Sample Room, a merchandise room where salesmen from the train could display their wares.

The Dick Building, a white building with a tower on top, sits across the street from the Wolf. It is now the gathering point for any tour of the underground tunnels.

McCord said he is hopeful that someday he will be able to display the tunnels that run from his building. For now, he and friend Kelli Penner are planning to remodel and furnish the hotel.

They are hoping to find sponsors for each of the hotel rooms, suggesting perhaps some of Ellinwood’s families will come forward with stories, pictures and town-related artifacts to help furnish the building with a sense of legacy and history.

“We may do a package thing with tours of the tunnels on both sides of the street,” McCord said. “Right now, mine are undeveloped. The Dick Building’s tunnels were left undisturbed when the doors were closed; mine were cleared out.”

McCord and Penner plan on hosting an open house at the Wolf during Ellinwood’s After Harvest Festival July 18-20.

“I call this my leap of faith,” McCord wrote. “I hope it is supported by both local people and people from afar.

“I am passionate about Ellinwood and want to give back to my community. By doing this project, I can restore a part of our heritage and give Ellinwood another attraction.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2013 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Historic Wolf Hotel in Ellinwood getting new life with new owner."