Gardner Hotel
Gardner Hotel

Gardner Hotel

The Gardner Hotel was opened in 1922 by Preston E. Gardner at 311 East Franklin Ave. Because of fears of fire in the 1920s, the Gardner was constructed entirely of steel making the hotel almost completely fire proof. In 1930 the hotel was sold to William McMurray, who sold it to Joseph George Nebhan later. His son, John Nebhan, ran it as a retirement hotel from 1962-1983. The current owner, Joe Nebhan (son of John Nebhan), took over management of the hotel in 1981. He began to operate the El Paso hotel as an El Paso hostel and hotel in 1984. To this day the Gardner Hotel still operates as a hotel in half of its rooms. The other half operates as El Paso International Hostel. Gardner Hotel has a lot of history but most notably, on Jan. 9, 1934, bank robber John Dillinger and two members of his gang checked into the Gardner Hotel. Dillinger signed the name John D. Ball on the registry and stayed in room 221. But because Dillinger didn't break any laws during his stay, the El Paso Sharif's Department did not arrest him. Dillinger checked out a few days later but was captured Jan. 25, 1934, in Tucson after being recognized by firefighters who had saved his heavy luggage from a burning hotel there.

Creator: Jim Murphy

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: EPMH

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

Cowboys - El Paso

The names of these two men were once written in pencil under the ...

Argyria Louise White, aged 5 months

There were a number of families named White living in El Paso at ...

Tigua Children In The Parade

Tigua children during a Sun Bowl Parade.

Children In The Sun Bowl Parade - 1936

Children in the Sun Bowl Parade in 1936.

Sun Bowl Parade - 1937

Sun Bowl Parade in 1937.

Pamela Ann MacGuire-1966

Pamela Ann MacGuire- Sun Bowl Queen for the year 1966.

Felix Manuel Bustillos

Felix Manuel Bustillos graduated in 1938. His picture on the ...

Carmen Sanchez

The image of the graduate Carmen Sanchez was taken in 1963.

Carmela de la Torre (Valdez)

This little girl in the beautiful white dress is called Carmela ...

Jake Erlich - El Paso, Texas

Many of us know of Erlich as the “world’s tallest man,” as ...

Parade Downtown - 1908

Mobile car in front of City Hall.

John Neff Wedding Party

John Neff 1938 - 1939 Sun Bowl President

Henry M. Walker - Secretary of the El Paso Central Labor Union

Henry M. Walker served in 1898 in Galveston, Tex. as president ...

William Moellar

Car in parade---1908.

Mrs. W. L. Crockett

The Crocketts were originally from Las Vegas, New Mexico. Mrs. ...

Mills Building

The image shows Pioneer Plaza and some of the buildings which ...

Historical Building

The building at 100 E. San Antonio had been a landmark in the ...

Power Plant looking east.

This may be the Power Plant on Santa Fe St.

Yard between electric plant and warehouse looking east.

Possibly the power plant on Santa Fe St. You can see a wooden ...

Electric Power Plant looking southwest.

A beautiful brick building with power lines strung everywhere. ...

Sol C. Schutz

Sol Schutz, an El Paso pioneer, was born in 1845 and died in ...

Graduates

These four young people may be an early graduating class from El ...

First To Graduate From El Paso's Only High School-1887

Image caption: Kate Moore was one of two members of the first ...

home.search_collection