Dallas threw the Statler Hilton a four-day party when it opened on Commerce Street in 1956. The city had not seen a major new hotel downtown in 30 years, and this one cost $16 million, ranked as the largest hotel in the Southwest and had a ballroom that held 2,200 people. It also turned out to be the last hotel the Statler chain ever built. Hilton had just bought the company.
The building was a show-off from day one. A cantilevered concrete slab let it climb higher than anyone expected, and the skin was glass and porcelain panels in that unmistakable midcentury teal. Historic Hotels of America credits it as the first building anywhere with elevator music and the first hotel with a 21-inch Westinghouse television in every room. There was a heliport on the roof, too, for guests who preferred to skip traffic from the airport.
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