high rise

 

When built in 1931, the ten-story Clovis Hotel was touted as the tallest building between Albuquerque and Dallas earning the nickname "Skyscraper of the Plains."  The hotel combined art-deco exterior ornamentation with southwestern Indian motifs. Each of the 114 rooms had a modern bathroom with hot and cold running water, a telephone, and an overstuffed Murphy bed. The elevator was the first in southeastern New Mexico; the lower floor housed KICA, the first radio station in town; and the post-Prohibition ballroom welcomed Louis Armstrong, Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Hank Williams.  Just across the street from the train depot, the hotel fell in decline when Santa Fe discontinued passenger service.  After receiving a National Register of Historic Places designation in 1894, the hotel closed in 1985 and sat empty for decades.  Just recently the adaptive reuse of the historic hotel has turned it into lofts -- joining the Main Street revitalization efforts of Clovis.

 

Clovis Hotel

201 Main Street

Clovis, New Mexico
1.2.2014