Plaza Motor Hotel

Visit El Paso

Built for Conrad Hilton as the El Paso Hilton Hotel, the present Plaza Hotel is significant as one of El Paso's early high-rise structures from the office of Trost and Trost. The style is Art Deco, and the exterior remains largely unaltered from its original form. Hilton, born in San Antonio, New Mexico in 1887, rose to international recognition as founder of one of the world's most successful hotel chains. The Plaza Hotel, located at Mills and Oregon Streets, is composed of a two story trapezoidal plan block attached to a rectangular fifteen story hotel tower topped by a smaller three story central block. Construction is of brick and concrete. Decoration on the first two floor facades, extending around the entire building, consists of simplified pilasters, stylized geometric Art Deco spandrels, and polychromatic roundels. A simple cornice crowns the two-story portion.