Cabana Hotel

Cabana Hotel

899 Stemmons Freeway (City Center)

Dallas reflects a bit of Las Vegas with the 1962 Cabana Hotel developed by Jay Sarno, who also developed Vegas properties Caesar’s Palace (1966) and Circus Circus (1968). This 10-story, 300-room hotel with its striking decorative concrete screen once welcomed famed guests, including The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Nixon, and Norman Mailer. Raquel Welch was a cocktail waitress here before being discovered. Much of the original features are intact, including extensive tile-work, terrazzo, concrete screen-walls, curved signature walls, and unique concrete umbrellas on the terrace. After the hotel ceased operation it was converted to the Decker Jail, which is now closed. Dallas County is in the process of selling the building to a developer interested in demolishing this once hip, mid-century building tied to the cultural history of Dallas, for a new data center.

UPDATE: The original developer who wanted to demolish the building backed out of the purchase and now the developer who took on The Statler redevelopment is working to return the building back to a hotel.