We have always known that a Medical Doctor, Dr. Burns, originally owned and worked out of the front part of the building. When we bought the building and renovated it in 2003, we found his sign in the attic (says: “Dr. HR Burns”), which we donated to the Louisville Museum (it is in the display case with other medical items).
I just learned something new from the Spring 2018 edition of the Louisville Historian from the article titled, “How the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic Changed Louisville Families Forever”. Headline from the Denver Rocky Mountain News, 10/19/1918: Dr. Burns Gives LIfe in Fight to Stop Epidemic: People relied on the help of doctors, but doctors were scarce and were not immune themselves. Dr. Horace Burns was a doctor in Louisville (in fact, he and his wife lived on Main Street) for many years starting in the 1890s. He moved to Denver, continued to work as a doctor, and died of the flu in October 1918 at the age of about 49. He contracted the virus from his patients, according to Denver newspapers coverage at the time.