This luxurious hotel served various functions during the revolution. The rooftop served as a “ringside seat” to observe several revolutionary battles across the Rio Grande including the 1929 Escobar Rebellion in Juárez. When Chihuahua’s governor Luis Terrazas fled to El Paso, he rented the entire top floor for his family along with their twenty-seven servants. The U.S. army had spies next to their room that kept tabs of any possible plans by Terrazas to violate neutrality laws. The Terrazas held loyalty to Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz and owned 6.5 million acres an area approximately equal to the state of Massachusets. Genral John Pershing and Pancho Villa visited the hotel. Alvaro Obregon,Venustiano Carranza, John Reed, William Taft, stayed at the Paso del Norte Hotel during their visits to El Paso. The silent movie “The Spreading of Evil” was filmed here during WWI.
Date of construction: Opened November 24, 1912.
Architect: Henry Trost.