Hilton Hotel
a.k.a. Plaza Hotel
1933 Main St., Dallas, TXThe Plaza Hotel was built in 1925 according to the design of the prominent and prolific firm of Lang and Witchell, arguably the most prestigious architectural firm in Dal- las during the first third of the 20th century. The building demonstrates noteworthy, intact, and unusual detailing influenced by the Beaux Arts style.
The hotel was constructed for Conrad N. Hilton, who operated one of the two earliest hotel chains in the state, and who went on to become the world's foremost hotel man. Opening as the Hilton Hotel, the building was his first highrise in Texas and the first structure to bear his name. Construction of the hotel marked a turning point in Hilton's long and illustrious career, as indicated in his autobiography.
The Plaza has operated continuously as a hotel since its opening. Conrad Nicholson Hilton's biographers do not mince words about his impact on the world's hotel industry. Writing in 1950 in The Man Who Bought the Waldorf, Thomas E. Dabney says, "Hilton ... is the greatest hotel operator the world has ever known." Four years later, Whitney Bolton, in The Silver Spade, calls Hilton "the world's most successful hotelier." Their assessments are based in part on the following facts. Among Hilton's holdings in the early 1950s were legendary and world-class hotels: the Waldorf-Astoria and the Plaza in New York, as well as the Palmer House and Stevens Hotel in Chicago. A few years later, he purchased the Statler chain and the Houston Shamrock for a total sum of about 87 million dollars. Their acquisition in 1954, together with his own chain, placed Hilton 50 percent ahead of the nearest competitor in the number of hotel rooms under the control of one corporation. Thus Bolton's and Dabney's 1950s assessments of Hilton's significance are not exaggerated.
Hilton's hotel career can be divided roughly into four phases. Although several patterns recur throughout his long career--from his purchase of Cisco's Mobley in 1919 until his death in 1977--each also has its own definition. The first and second phases of his hotel career involved Texas chains and span the years 1919 to 1925, then 1925 to 1937, respectively. Located in the central business district of Dallas and now known as the Plaza Hotel, the Dallas Hilton marks the commencement of the second phase of Hil- ton's career. In many ways, it represents a major shift in direction that continued during the rest of his life.
In 1923, when Hilton began thinking about building a new hotel, he was well-known in hotel circles. He had already bought and profitably sold the Mobley in Cisco (NR 1981). He had earned recognition in a publication devoted to prominent Texans as the owner of one of the two earliest hotel chains in the state. Hilton's chain was composed of a handful of hotels located largely in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. All had been purchased as pre-existing hotels, at moderate prices well under $100,000. All were somewhat shabby "dowagers", as he affectionately called them, and they were at most medium-rise in scale. Each also required considerable rehabilitation.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.