HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Hilton Hotel

Dallas, Dallas County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Designed by the architectural firm of Lang and Witchell, this hotel was built in 1925 for Conrad Hilton, and was the first to bear the Hilton name. The hotel advertised comfortable guest rooms and superior service at moderate prices. The fourteen-story, U-plan brick-clad building features elaborate terra cotta details at the two entries. Operated by A. C. White beginning in 1938, it was known as the White-Plaza until 1974. RTHL - 1988

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built in 1925 to designs by Lang and Witchell, this fourteen-story brick building was the very first hotel to carry the Hilton name. It promised comfortable rooms and good service at moderate prices, its U-shaped plan dressed up with elaborate terra cotta at the entrances. Later operated as the White-Plaza from 1938 until 1974, it stands at the origin point of one of the world's great hospitality empires.

Why it matters

This is where the Hilton brand began, marking the launch of a Texas-born company that would reshape modern American travel and hospitality.

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Related people

  • · Conrad Hilton

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Majestic Theatre

Dallas, TX

Theatre impresario Karl St. John Hoblitzelle built this five-story Beaux Arts palace in 1921 to house Dallas' Majestic Theatre, hiring Chicago architect John Eberson to design its opulent Baroque interior and 1,570-seat auditorium. Conceived as family entertainment, the Majestic became a cornerstone of the city's Elm Street theatre district. Its ornate detailing survives as a rare monument to the golden age of American vaudeville and movie palaces.

Hoblitzelle, Karl St. John

Dallas, TX

Karl Hoblitzelle came out of Missouri to help stage the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, then founded the Interstate Amusement Company in 1905 and built a theater empire spreading from Texas across the South. A pioneer who wired his houses for sound and air-conditioned them, he set national trends as an exhibitor, with the Majestic Theatre as his flagship. In later life he became a leading philanthropist, funding schools and hospitals and donating his archives to the University of Texas.

Dallas City Hall, 1914-1978

Dallas, TX

By 1910 Dallas had outgrown its old city hall, so officials sold that corner to a brewer who built the Adolphus Hotel and chose this site for a grand new one. Opened in 1914 to coincide with the State Fair, the five-story Beaux-Arts building of Texas gray granite, with its Corinthian columns, served the booming city for decades. In the basement of the adjacent municipal building, on November 24, 1963, Jack Ruby fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

Neiman-Marcus

Dallas, TX

In 1907 Herbert Marcus, Sr., his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband A. L. Neiman launched Neiman-Marcus, a luxury retailer that would make Dallas synonymous with high-end American fashion. After fire destroyed the original store in 1913, this new building rose in its place, and from it flowed retail innovations—in service, marketing, and merchandising—that rippled out to stores and manufacturers nationwide. Under Herbert Marcus, the firm also became a leader in Dallas philanthropy and civic life.