Native limestone was a common building material for structures. This building with circular window arches, may have been built as early as 1874 by dry goods and grocery merchant W.E. Perkins. During the 1880s a prominent Granbury merchant A.P. Gordon ran a saloon in these buildings along with selling dry goods and groceries. A well-known legend surrounds the Gordon’s saloon and its bartender John St. Helen. It is believed to this day by many history buffs St. Helen was John Wilkes Booth the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. Although Booth was supposedly killed shortly after Lincoln’s death, it is believed Booth made his way to the Granbury area and changed his name to John St. Helen. When St. Helen became deathly ill, he made what he believed to be a deathbed confession to a Dallas Catholic priest and to A.P. Gordon’s brother F.J. Gordon that he was indeed John Wilks Booth. He also revealed to F.J. where to find the pistol used to shoot Lincoln. Upon recovering, St. Helen disappeared from Granbury. Later a man claiming to be both St, Helen and Booth died in Enid, Oklahoma. These buildings now house the Nutshell Eatery and St. Helen’s Gifts and Décor.