Cortez Building - 2014
Cortez Building

Cortez Building - 2014

The Cortez Building is located on the northeast corner of North Mesa and Mills Avenue on San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso, Texas. For more than seventy-five years it has served the city as a hotel, office building, and home to government agencies. It was originally built as a hotel on the plaza, the last of three hotels to occupy that site. In 1899, Mrs. Alzina DeGroff, a pioneer in the hotel business in El Paso, acquired the Vendome Hotel and renamed it the Hotel Orndorff after her first husband. She operated it for more than twenty-five years until 1924 when she borrowed 825,000 dollars and hired the renowned El Paso architectural firm Trost and Trost to design a new hotel. The Hotel Orndorff was demolished and a new Orndorff Hotel was constructed at the same site at a cost of more than 1.4 million dollars. Henry C. Trost, who dominated the architectural scene of the American Southwest for more than three decades, designed the building. Unfortunately, Mrs. DeGroff did not live to see the completion of the building and in 1927 it was sold to became the Hotel Hussman. The company spent almost 700,000 dollars expanding the hotel. Three-hundred rooms, a major convention hall, and dining facility were added. When completed, this was the largest hotel between Dallas and Los Angeles. In 1935 a contest was held to re-name the building and the name was changed to the Hotel Cortez. The eleven-story building has twelve bays facing Mesa and ten facing Mills. The entrance on Mesa Street has a five-story cast relief portal and ornamented windows on the sixth and seventh levels. It is in the tradition of the Spanish Colonial Revival which was popular in the 1920s, a blending of renaissance, Moorish, and Baroque styles featuring many references to the Spanish and Spanish-American past. The interior features wrought iron, glazed tiles, and wooden beams, many with hand-painted designs. In A Castle of Old Spain on the Plaza of El Paso, a booklet celebrating the hotel that was published shortly after its renovation in 1928 it was compared to a "Spanish nobleman's mansion." The exterior of the building features portrait heads of conquistadors on the front entrance. For the next thirty-five years the Hotel Cortez was a well-known landmark on the plaza drawing visitors and celebrities from around the world. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy stayed at the Cortez during his visit to El Paso. The Hotel Cortez finally closed its doors in February 1970. Mexican businessman Jorge Murra of Torreon purchased the building and leased the space to various government agencies. In the process, he gutted much of the interior. A major fire damaged the structure further in 1972. In the early 1980s the building was sold once again and underwent major renovations. The first and tenth floor were restored to their original splendor. The other floors were remodeled as professional offices. The El Paso Community Foundation, located on the tenth floor of the structure, has further restored the building. Today, the Cortez Building remains a splendid "castle" overlooking San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso. (Source: http://epcc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=346448&sid=3176969)

Creator: Sergio Ramirez

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

El Paso County Courthouse, 1886-1917

El Paso County Courthouse, first of three at current location.

Washington Hotel

The Washington Hotel was located at 324 1/2 South El Paso St.. ...

Downtown Building

Current County Courthouse

El Paso Fire Department Racing Team

These men were Southwest champions with a run time of 22 seconds ...

Portrait of African American Woman

The picture shows an African American woman in 1880's

Portrait of two Women

The image captures two women, both wear beautiful white dresses ...

Portrait of Two African American Women

The image portrays two African American Women.

Portrait of Two African American Women

The images of these two African American Women was taken in the ...

Little Girl

The image portrays a little girl sitting on a kind of bench. The ...

Cabinet Portrait of Little Child

The image shows a cabinet portrait of a little girl. First ...

Portrait of African American Couple

The image shows a African American couple on a cabinet card. ...

African American Boy

The cabinet card photograph of the African American boy was ...

Portrait of African American Man

The portrait of this African American man was taken by the ...

Samuel Cleavenger Sr.

Samuel Cleavenger was the father of Franklin Lee Cleavenger, who ...

Dr. Haldeen Braddy and Manuel Acosta

Dr. Braddy personally signs his book "The Paradox of Pancho ...

Dr. Wayne Lorentzen

Dr. Wayne Lane Lorentzen was a retired doctor of internal ...

John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 – August 19, 1895)

Hardin claimed to have already killed 42 men, but newspapers of ...

Leon Metz

Leon Metz is an American cultural historian, author, television ...

Jack McGrath

El Pasoan Jack McGrath, little else is known about the photo.

Anita Lee Blair & guide dog Fawn, El Paso, TX

Anita Blair was a state representative and community activist, ...

Mrs. R.L. Pat Brown

The image shows a glamorous shot of Mrs. R.L. Pat Brown.

Jesse Castillo

The image shows the light weight boxer Jesse Castillo. He was a ...

Pat Garrett - Customs Collector - El Paso, Texas

Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett (June 5, 1850 – February 29, 1908) ...

home.search_collection