Downtown

Downtown

The image shows Mesa Street at San Jacinto Plaza. The building in the middle is the Roberts-Banner building. It was built in 1910 by Henry C. Trost and is one of the first reinforced concrete structures in El Paso. In 1908, the ground had been purchased by two prominent New Mexican cattlemen, Martin D. Roberts and William M. Banner, who began investing in Downtown El Paso in the early 20th century. To the left, parts of the old Orndorff Hotel can be seen, which is on the present site of the Cortez building. The Hotel was originally the Vendome Hotel but was acquired by Mrs. Alzina DeGroff in 1899, who renamed it Orndorff Hotel. 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. Unfortunately, Mrs. DeGroff did not live to see the completion of the building, which is now the Cortez building. The red building to the right of the image probably shows Hotel Sheldon, unofficial headquarters for Mexican Revolution partisans. It opened in 1900 but burned down in 1929. One year later the Hilton Hotel, designed by Trost too, opened on the site. It became the Plaza Hotel in 1963, which closed its doors in 1991.