The Oldest Hotel In El Paso Was A Famous Gangster’s Last Stop

It's actually the oldest continually operating hotel in El Paso and it's not not the Plaza, Hotel Paseo Del Norte or the DeSoto.

Those hotels have been around a minute and the Plaza was actually one of the very first Hilton hotels.

Neither it nor the Hotel Paseo Del Norte can claim the title "oldest, continually operating hotel in El Paso" though.

The Plaza, built by Conrad Hilton himself, (yep, great-grandpappy to Paris), first opened in 1930. Hilton lived in it for a time and his Mom lived there until 1947.

The Hotel Paseo Del Norte first opened in 1912 and is the oldest hotel operating in El Paso right now.

Originally the Paseo De Norte, it was the Camino Real for s couple of decades then re-renamed Paseo Del Norte after briefly closing for a major renovation. The closure and re-namings' cost it (technically) the "continually operating" award.

The DeSoto was built in 1905 but, sadly, the famously haunted hotel burned down in 2022.

What Is The Oldest, Continually Operating, Hotel In El Paso?

The grand old dame of El Paso hotels is the Gardner Hotel & Hostel. Located at 311 E. Franklin, The Gardner opened in 1922 and has not stopped or changed names in 101 years.

Over that century, it has seen its share of famous guests including acclaimed writer Cormac McCarthy, author of "No Country For Old Men" among others.

He was so taken with The Gardner, it's mentioned in several of his books. The movie made from No Country For Old Men ends in a hotel in El Paso but it's not The Gardner.

What Famous Outlaw Stayed In El Paso?

In 1934, public enemy #1, John Dillinger, dropped into the Gardner on his way to Arizona. He stayed in room 221 if you'd care to do the same.

One of his last fun nights as the law caught up to him in Tucson a couple of weeks later and off to jail he went.

He escaped a month later but that only bought him a few months. He was shot and killed by 'Feds in July of 1934.