05/31/1973
Among the people the trains brought to El Paso in 1881 was Dr. Lucius Sheldon of Brooklyn, N.Y. He figured the town was ready to grow and he wanted to be a part of it
He bought the block now occupied by the Plaza Hotel, where the overland stage coach used to ease to a stop at Pioneer Plaza. He bought the site for $15,000 from Andrews Pierce, R. S. Spofford, Charles Balbridge, T. W. and James Pierce.
THE COMMUNITY already had two hotels, the Vendome and the Pierson, so Dr. Sheldon elected to construct an office building. It later became one of El Paso's most famous hotels. The red brick, four-story Sheldon Office Building was completed in 1884 and offered rental space for doctors, lawyers, dentists and real estate men. The Post Office also was located there for a time.
As demand arose, housekeeping rooms were rented in the building, with stovepipes sticking out the windows. In 1899 Dr. Sheldon brought a Brooklyn architect, Walter E. Parfitt, here to transform the office building into a first class hotel. The remodeling and addition of a wooden fifth story cost $35,000, a tremendous price in those days.
THE FORMAL opening of the hotel was a 2 p.m. Sept. 9 1900. The elevator, which may have been the first in town, was a marvel to the beholders.
Alderman John Fisher, who had been operating the Pierson Hotel at Kansas and Mills streets, moved to the Sheldon and ran it for 10 years.
He always kept bags of sand in the basement and, with the bellhops, would stack them on the sidewalk on Oregon street whenever there was heavy rain to keep water from flooding the hotel.
IN THOSE days the Southern Pacific, Texas and Pacific and Santa Fe railroads had separate depots. Hotel keepers would have runners and hacks at the train stations to bid for customers.
On March 12,1907, the Sheldon was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Charles DeGroff for $200,000. They spent $75,000 remodeling it the next year. Mrs. DeGroff was the mother of Burt Orndorff, who was hotel manager, Lee Orndorff, who became a prominent realtor, and Seth Orndorff who once was sheriff.
THE HOTEL dining room was the site of many formal parties by El Paso's social set. Before the Sheldon opened, such gatherings were held at one of the district court rooms in the old red brick courthouse on the site of the present City-County Building.
The property was acquired by Albert Mathias, an El Pasoan since 1884, in 1920 from Burt Orndorff and associates for $500,000. He later leased, the hotel to the Sheldon Operating Co. composed of James G. McNary, Felix Martinez, J. J. Mundy and J. A. Krakauer.
THE COMPANY sold the lease to Joe Goodell who then sold it to P. C. Steele. He was operating the Sheldon when it was virtually destroyed by fire April 9, 1929.
After the fire, Mathias leased the hotel to Conrad Hilton who built the present hotel on the site. The 17-story edifice was opened Nov. 6, 1930. Designed by Trost and Trost, it cost about $1 million. R. E. McKee was contractor.
The name was changed to Plaza Hotel in 1963 when Kramer Hotel organization took overthe management.
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