The San Juan Hotel, originally built in 1919, is one of the Rio Grande Valley’s oldest standing boarding houses.
The hotel is a state historic landmark, but it’s also no longer in use and has fallen into disrepair. The City of San Juan, which owns the building, has plans to remake parts of the downtown area – and some community members are concerned that will mean the destruction of the San Juan Hotel.
Gabriel Ozuna, preservation chairman of the Hidalgo County Historical Commission, spoke to the Texas Standard about the hotel’s history and options for its future.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: What’s historically significant about the San Juan Hotel?
Gabriel Ozuna: The hotel opened in 1920, and it was built as a regional gathering place for local business leaders and land speculators during what we call the Magic Valley era, which is approximately the 20s and 30s. And it was meant to draw business to the new downtown area in the city of San Juan and provide a centralized area in the Rio Grande Valley to host land parties coming from up north.
It was segregated on the Anglo side of San Juan, south of the railroad tracks. And in its later years, circa 1960, it started to decline. It was closed for general business, with the exception of its most famous long-term tenant, Tom Mayfield, who’s been the subject of recent controversy and intrigue.
Well, after Mayfield’s death in 1966, the hotel was vacant and in bad shape until it was purchased by the Sigle family in 1981. Glenn and his son David restored the property and brought the hotel back to life in 1983, and around then is when it got its state landmark status. And for a few more years, it served as this gathering place for the community.
Unfortunately, after 1994, Glenn Sigle died, and his son and widow realized they couldn’t keep running the hotel by themselves. And they started to look for a buyer who would be able to carry on that legacy. Unfortunately, after a series of absentee owners, it fell into disrepair until finally it was purchased by the city of San Juan in November of last year.
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What’s unique about the hotel?
It would be very difficult to tell the history of San Juan, Texas, without the San Juan Hotel. In fact, you know, there’s a well known book of the Images of America series published by Arcadia Publishing – the hotel’s on the cover of that book for a reason.
You compare it to what’s significant in other areas: It’s like telling the story of Fort Worth without the stockyards, or telling the history of Texas without the Alamo. These are the sites that contribute to the history. This is where people met. This is where history happened.
And so when it comes to preservation, it’s not enough to just tell that story in the abstract. We want to point to the places where that history happened. And I think that, beyond, you know, much anything else, is why it’s significant and why it’s unique in San Juan.
And to be honest, there just isn’t a whole lot left of historic significance in the Mid Valley like this being on a prominent location right on US Business 83, which thousands of people pass by every week. It’s a familiar place that continues to contribute to the history of the Valley, even though it’s not been in use in the last 20 years or so. It’s still significant to the people because it’s there, it’s familiar, and it’s a part of the fabric.