Two 18th-century adobe houses greet you here, homes once tied to the Ortiz family, folded into this hotel that opened in 1973. You can feel the story of a four-acre parcel that once included two 18th-century adobe houses tied to one of the city’s oldest families. The Nicholas Ortiz III house was folded into the hotel as its gift shop, while the Antonio Jose Ortiz house became the restaurant and lounge.
In 1970 the Springer Corporation of Albuquerque proposed a Hilton-franchised motor hotel — a 153-room, $3.5-million plan presented to the Santa Fe Urban Renewal Board — and Springer's bid was accepted. The property transferred in October 1971 for $390,607, and a groundbreaking in May 1972, attended by Governor Bruce King, set the project in motion. Architect William W. Ellison designed the three-story, split-level main building in Santa Fe’s Territorial Style, and construction revealed weaknesses in the old adobes that required rebuilding several walls and replacing some original adobe bricks.
The hotel was originally known as the Santa Fe Hilton Hotel Inn. Notice the Territorial-style facade wrapping the historic adobes that still anchor this corner of the plaza.