Adolphus Busch raised the hotel in front of you, the Adolphus, on the site of Dallas's old City Hall. This historic upscale hotel was established in 1912 and is a Dallas Landmark; for several years it was the tallest building in the state and today it is part of Marriott's Autograph Collection. It was developed by Adolphus Busch, founder of the Anheuser-Busch company, who already owned the Oriental Hotel across the street.
In 1910 a group of prominent Dallas businessmen approached him with the idea of building the city's first European-style luxury hotel. Busch purchased Dallas’s old City Hall on June 22, 1910, demolished it, and built this hotel at a cost of $1.8 million. Announced initially as the New Oriental Hotel, its design came from Thomas P. Barnett of Barnett, Haynes & Barnett of St. Louis in the Beaux Arts style.
The 22-story, 312-foot (95 m) tower would remain the tallest in Texas until it was surpassed by the Magnolia Petroleum Building ten years later. By the time it opened on October 5, 1912, its name had been changed to the Adolphus Hotel, and it would be expanded in 1916 and 1926. Notice the 22 stories of Beaux-Arts detail that once made this the tallest building in Texas.