The most compelling sight when you look at El Paso from afar is the towering Franklin Mountains and the shining star. It is in fact 459 ft long and 278 ft wide and consists of 459 lightbulbs. Traditionally, the star was lighted only during the Christmas season until 1993 when it became lit year round.
Another marking you will find on the Franklin Mountains is the letter E started by El Paso High in 1920–21. It was a practice to paint a letter of the school on the mountain slope closest to overlooking the school itself. Other letters representing high schools that appeared throughout time included:
- “A” for Austin
- “B” for Bowie
- “C” for Cathedral
- “I” for Irvin
- “M” for the College of Mines “The Miners.”
Over time the letters on the mountain have faded due to the curtailment of the practice.
As we wander now to the main part of town, Jacinto Plaza. The main attraction there is the alligator statues, it serves as a reminder that at one point live alligators were contained in this pond. This was from 1889 to 1965 and given that alligators are not indigenous to the Chihuahuan Desert, they were exported from elsewhere. Over the years the alligators were subject to abuse and vandals from troublemakers that they ultimately decided to relocate them to the El Paso Zoo where they rightfully belong.
Aside from the alligators this plaza is surrounded by plenty of fantastic art deco buildings and we’ll go through each one in turn.
Mills Building is a 12 story reinforced concrete which at the time of construction in 1911 was the tallest in El Paso. Named after Ansom Mills, an officer in the United States Army, a surveyor, entrepreneur, and inventor. He is credited with both naming and laying out the City of El Paso. He enlisted the services of architect Henry Trost and primary purpose it served was office building for which the firm set up offices until 1920.
Get ready to see many more buildings designed by Henry Trost, one of the most prolific architects of the American Southwest. He was strongly influenced by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright as well as by the Mission Revival style. Using those influences, Trost developed his own architectural style to reflect the southwest climate. By the end of his life, his firm had designed 650 buildings in El Paso, Albuquerque, Phoenix, San Angelo, northern Mexico and Tucson.
The Hotel Cortez was built in 1926 and served as a hotel that underwent many names until it settled with the Cortez name in 1935. It features many decorative elements including busts of helmeted conquistadores, a Spanish coat of arms, an elaborate three-story main entrance, and two bracket-supported balconies on the fifth floor. Currently, the building is home to commercial space and offices.
Now we enter Pioneer Plaza to get a good view of the Plaza Hotel (yes also designed by Trost) which originally debuted in 1930 as a Hilton Hotel. It served 33 years as the Hilton Hotel and as one of Conrad Hilton’s first high-rise hotels. It changed hands in 1963 and underwent many renovations and restored as a premier hotel to this day.
A statue out front is of Fray García de San Francisco a Franciscan Friar credited in 1659 with the founding of the Guadalupe Mission today located in downtown Juarez. You have to remember that at the time there was no state or national boundaries, this was territory called El Paso del Norte and ruled by Spain. Franciscans were there to Christianize the natives. El Paso was an important settlement on the Camino Real de Adentro that linked Mexico City to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Designed to be reminiscent of a Spanish mission-style parapet the Plaza theater opened in 1930 as the largest theater of its kind between Dallas and Los Angeles. Mostly for films but then there were vaudeville acts and there were traveling shows. The Plaza closed in 1986 and the city of El Paso decided to demolish the theater to make way for a new parking lot. The El Paso Community Foundation finally stepped in and negotiated with the city to save an important part of El Paso’s history. The El Paso Community Foundation was able to raise 1 million dollars in 6 weeks and in 2002 the Plaza returned to its original splendor.
The Kress department store first opened its El Paso branch in 1907 but after 2 fires it was rebuilt to the current structure of 1937. It was designed by Kress’s head architect Edward Sibbert (also behind the one we saw in downtown Hilo). It was designed with the regional architecture in mind which can be best described as Spanish style with Moorish influence. Though abandoned now since Kress stopped operating in 1980, plans are underway to revitalize the structure with a food hall in the first floor and various entertainment venues, event areas, and private dining spaces in the second floor.
Roberts-Banner Building (designed by Trost) was built in 1910 and was significant as the first reinforced concrete building. In its heyday between 1910 and the 1950s, the building was a thriving home to a number of physicians, lawyers, realtors, engineers, and oil company executives. During the Mexican Revolution, it was alleged that the Roberts-Banner Building was the headquarters for a team of spies.
Although may look vintage, the 6-foot tall “ElectriCity” sign atop this building lit with LED lights is not old, it was actually put up in 2016. The building was formerly known as the Martin Building built in 1917 and was headquarters for El Paso Electric for more than 50 years starting from 1924. What it is now is lofts apts.
The O. T. Bassett Tower is an Art Deco skyscraper designed by Trost and completed in 1930. It is now an Aloft Hotel part of the Marriott chain.
If you look back to my Phoenix entry, the Luhrs Tower I described has a striking resemblance to this building. No coincidence it was by Trost also!!
Designed by Trost for Richard Caples, a former mayor of El Paso, the 1909 commercial building below was the first reinforced concrete structure in El Paso. The building figured prominently in the Mexican Revolution. In 1911, Francisco Madero declared that El Paso would be the epicenter of his revolutionary movement outside of Mexico. Rooms 507 and 508, with their sweeping views, served as the administrative headquarters of the Madero regime.
The Fallas Paredes building once housed The Popular Dry Goods Company. It took over this site which was formerly a masonic lodge and new building was designed by Trost in 1918 and operated until 1995 when it was sold to the Fallas Department Store. The Popular was involved in the Mexican Revolution not only because both sides bought merchandise for their troops there. The Fallas company itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2018 but the El Paso branch remained open until 2022 when it decided to close permanently. It sits vacant currently.
Built in 1905, the De Soto started off like any other hotel in the El Paso area, providing a downtown place to stay for weary travelers. It’s reputation of being super-haunted had grown over the years and so much paranormal activity inside its walls has been documented that when the popular paranormal television reality show Ghost Adventures came to El Paso in 2016. It’s said in the basement is where satanic rituals were once conducted and where an angry spirit purported to be of a demonic nature resided. Guests would report being touched, scratched, and having pebbles thrown in their direction also witnessed shadowy figures, heard whispers and sometimes a disembodied voice. Hotel was gutted in a massive Condition 4 fire on February 4, 2022 that engulfed its interior and severely damaged its roof.
Another hotel with funky signage is the Gateway Hotel. The Gateway Hotel opened in 1928 after being converted from an office building by Trost. City shut it down in 2014 as a safety hazard forcing people to move out. The last operator of the hotel was convicted in federal court in 2011 of money laundering and a scheme to smuggle into the United States thousands of undocumented immigrants many of whom were housed at the hotel over the course of several years. Its been since repossessed back through foreclosure and renovated back to hotel accommodations.
Below is the office of National American Investment Co. Its still operating business but couldn’t find anything about them online, their signage would suggest they have been around for a long time
This is a photo I love only of how much is going on in it. To the right you have ghost signs recently exposed after the demolition of an old building built by Trost in 1916. On the right you have a mural by Ricardo Chavarria that becomes lighted by night.
The El Paso Scottish Rite Temple was constructed in downtown El Paso in 1921. The Scottish Rite of Freemasons organized in El Paso in 1883 and met in rented rooms until this temple was constructed.
Designed by famed Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and completed in 1906, the El Paso Union Depot was set up to consolidate the railroad lines entering El Paso. Interestingly was America’s first international rail station, as Mexico Central trains crossed the Rio Grande from Juarez. By uniting all of the rail lines in one central structure downtown witnessed the construction of numerous hotels, banks, and other businesses positioned to benefit from proximity to the transportation hub. Losing passengers after the mid-twentieth century, the depot was shuttered in 1974. Recently, as part of a redevelopment plan for downtown El Paso, Union Depot has been envisioned as not only home to Amtrak, but also for consolidated intercity bus services, local bus rapid transit, and perhaps even a future light rail network.
El Paso has the proud history of being the Boot Capital of America. The shop is located in a 100-year-old building that used to be a fur trappers’ warehouse next to the union depot. The custom boot company started in 1997 and lays claim to the world’s largest boots certified by Guinness World Records.
El Paso Convention and Performing Arts Centers includes 8 different venues including the Convention Center, 2 historical theaters, and multiple unique event spaces. Its become host to everything from meetings and conventions to trade shows and concerts by some of the hottest performers.
Just like San Antonio, El Paso has the Mission Trail which stretches for 9 miles and includes Ysleta Mission, Socorro Mission and the Presidio Chapel of San Elizario. Founded in 1598 by Governor Don Juan de Oñate, and was the first mission trail in America. Oñate led a caravan of 500 colonists along with 12 Franciscan missionaries on an expedition to settle a new province. Unlike other Spanish missions like the more well-known missions of South Texas which were founded for the refugees and hostages from the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico, native people who had already been “missionized,” or acculturated, by the Spanish.
Lastly I present the US/Mexico boundary marker at Chamizal National Memorial.
Ending the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago sets the Rio Grande as the Texas/Mexico Border. Sixteen years later in 1864, severe flooding changed the course of the Rio Grande around El Paso starting a century-long border dispute. The Rio Grande shifted southward, and an area of Mexican farmland known as the Chamizal Tract was now in the United States. The Chamizal tract and the neighboring territory known as Cordova Island became havens for smuggling alcohol during prohibition. In addition, the region witnessed a rise in drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Diplomatic negotiations resumed in the early 1960s, Mexican and U.S. officials met in Mexico City for the Chamizal Convention of 1963. The Chamizal issue officially ended in January of 1964 and as part of agreement
- Mexico awarded 366 acres of the Chamizal area and 71 acres east of the adjacent Cordova Island.
- the United States received compensation from a private Mexican bank for 382 structures included in the transfer.
- The United States received 193 acres of Cordova Island from Mexico
- the two nations agreed to share equally in the cost of rechanneling the river.
