Hotel Cortez
300 N. Mesa St., El Paso, TXOccupying a site that has served the city continuously as a source of hostelry, the Hotel Cortez, which faces San Jacinto Plaza, contributes significantly to the architectural make-up of the inner city. Originally the site afforded the Hotel Vendome, an early El Paso lodging facility. This establishment was replaced with the Hotel Orndorff, which appears in historic photographs as a four-story pressed brick structure with balustraded balconies running the width of the structure on two sides.
The new Hotel Orndorff, commissioned by Mrs. Charles DeGroff for $1,400,000, officially opened on September 10, 1926. Mrs. DeGroff died unexpectedly one month prior to the opening and approximately one year later, the Hussman Hotel Company purchased the business and changed its name to Hotel Hussman. In a contest held to rename it, Hotel Cortez, submitted by prominent local attorney Thornton Hadie, was chosen. On June 5, 1963, President Kennedy stayed overnight at the hotel. The building continued to serve the lodging needs of El Paso until the late 1960s. In 1970 it was leased to the Department of Labor as the El Paso Job Corps Center.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
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.