The owner, Archibald "Billy" Caldwell, son of an Irish colonel and Potawatomi woman, saved James Kinzie from the Fort Dearborn massacre in 1812. Later, in 1823, they together built an inn that became Wolf Tavern.

Wolf Point, the site of the tavern, west of the river and just south of what is now the Kinzie St bridge, got its name from the tavern.