A Spanish Revival hotel built in 1930 that served as the operational base for the cast and crew of the 1956 film Giant during its six-week summer shoot in 1955.
At a glance
El Paisano Hotel is a U-shaped structure designed by Henry C. Trost of Trost & Trost and built by Charles N. Bassett, both of El Paso. The building features a fifty-by-fifty-foot courtyard with a large central fountain. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 1 August 1978.
History
During the 1930s and 1940s, El Paisano served cattle ranchers who travelled to Marfa to trade livestock and tourists drawn by West Texas’s dry desert climate. The hotel transformed in 1955 when director George Stevens and a Warner Bros. film crew arrived to shoot Giant in Presidio County. Over three hundred cast and crew members—including James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson—used the hotel as their base of operations for six weeks that summer.
Gary and Carolyn Rogers purchased the property in 1970 and lived there with their three children for several years before buying a Trost-designed home in Marfa. They operated a successful restaurant and bar. Jack Brown acquired the hotel in the late 1970s and converted its 65 rooms into 9 timeshare condominiums; the business eventually failed and Presidio County foreclosed. Joe and Lanna Duncan bought the property at auction for $185,000 in March 2001 and spent three years renovating it before reopening with 33 rooms and suites.
What you see
The hotel follows a U-shaped floor plan in Spanish Revival style, with its defining feature a fifty-by-fifty-foot courtyard anchored by a substantial fountain. A piano installed during the Rogers era remains in use in the lobby.
Cultural significance
El Paisano is principally known as the headquarters for production of Giant, one of the major American films of the 1950s. The hotel’s role in accommodating the entire film crew for six weeks connected Marfa to Hollywood and left a lasting mark on the town’s cultural identity.
Key facts
- Country: United States
- City: Marfa, Texas
- Coordinates: 30.31222222, −104.02194444
- Built: 1930
- Architect: Henry C. Trost, Trost & Trost
- Builder: Charles N. Bassett
- National Register of Historic Places: 1 August 1978
Practical information & getting there
El Paisano Hotel operates as a guest hotel in downtown Marfa. Contact details and current room availability can be found on the hotel’s website or through standard lodging platforms.
Sources & resources
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