Before It Was Plank’s

Historical references indicate William Foster Breck may have played a role in the construction of the old hotel and saloon in the Grove City Town Center, known best today as Plank’s on Broadway. The hotel was built by William Blackburn in 1854, two years after Breck created the village in 1852. Breck had a history with hotel operations and viewed such a business as important to the town. He built and operated the first hotel in Carroll, Ohio that was located on the Ohio Erie Canal. He was a prominent businessman in that community building and operating a large grain warehouse and a mercantile before relocating to Jackson Township in the late 1840s. The earliest known operators of the Grove City hotel and saloon were Alexander Frankenburg, John Douglas, T. E. Booth, Jack Goldsmith, John Corilius, Dude Strife, Unknown Jones, William Voelkel Sr., and Joseph Enders. When Dick Robinson purchased the business, he renamed it the Charlie Enders Saloon. In 1994, Bill Plank, as senior partner, purchased the business and opened Plank’s on Broadway.