Settles Hotel

Duane's take

The official marker's the source, and here's how I tell it. Way out in Howard County, there's a building that used to stop travelers cold, just the sight of it rising up out of the West Texas horizon. Fifteen stories of brick, reaching for the sky between Fort Worth and El Paso, and for many years there wasn't another building out that way that could touch it.

That's the Settles Hotel, and the story of how it got built is the kind of thing you couldn't make up if you tried. Will R. and Lillian Settles had a ranch. And then, in 1927, they found oil on it.

Now, some folks might've banked the money quiet. Not the Settles family. They decided to build a hotel.

Not a boarding house, not a modest little inn. A grand hotel. Fifteen stories.

They brought in a designer named David Castle, born in 1884, and Castle drew up something that had no business being out in the middle of West Texas, except that it was exactly right for it. One year under construction, and when they were done, the place had a hundred and fifty guest rooms, grand public rooms, office and retail space, furnished apartments, restaurants, ballrooms, and up on that fifteenth floor, a private club sitting above everything for miles around. The grand opening was October 1, 1930.

Now, Will R. and Lillian Settles ran that hotel themselves for two years. Only two years. Then new ownership took the reins, and the hotel kept right on standing, kept right on welcoming guests, kept right on being the tallest thing between Fort Worth and El Paso.

David Castle, who drew the whole vision up, lived until 1956, long enough to know what he'd put on the map. Some buildings tell you something about the people who built them. This one says: we struck oil, and we dreamed tall.

What the marker says

Will R. and Lillian Settles built this hotel after the discovery of oil on their ranch in 1927. The grand opening was October 1, 1930. Designed by David Castle (1884-1956), the 15-story brick highrise was for many years the tallest building between Fort Worth and El Paso. Under construction for one year, the hotel boasted 150 guest rooms, grand public rooms, office and retail space, furnished apartments, restaurants, ballrooms, and a private club on the top floor. Although the Settles family operated the hotel for only two years, it remained open under new ownership. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1987