Toltec meant man of knowledge, and the Toltec Club, also called the Toltec Building, faces you in downtown El Paso. This is the structure added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The Toltec Club itself was founded on November 18, 1902 by W.H. Burges, T.M. Wingo, Felix Martinez, W.W. Turney, A.P. Coles, Britton Davis, J. Arthur Eddy and C.B. Eddy; its name, 'Toltec,' meant 'man of knowledge.' The club purchased the land for this building on December 12, 1908.
The building opened in 1910 after a construction that cost about $100,000, designed by architect John J. Huddart. Its grand opening on October 14, 1910 was a colorful, 'informal' reception, the El Paso Herald reported. Inside the club were a ballroom and tables where important visitors were entertained with high-stakes gambling.
Membership was costly: initiation fees ran $100 and annual dues $50. The prosperity here declined with the nation; the Great Depression affected the Toltec Club and it closed in 1930. Notice the façade and streetscape that outlasted the initiation fees, the high-stakes tables, and the club's 1930 closing.