Hotel Paisano

The 1930 Spanish-Renaissance hotel in Marfa where the cast of Giant — Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean — lived for the summer of 1955 while shooting on the Reata Ranch outside town. Forty-one rooms, a rooftop, an interior courtyard, and an unironic claim on a piece of West Texas film history. Still independently owned, still anchoring Highland Avenue.

You stay here because you're in Marfa for Donald Judd, the Chinati Foundation, the night sky, and the strange equilibrium of a 1,700-person town that's also a contemporary art capital. The Paisano gives you the historic version of all that.

The setting

Marfa sits in the high desert of West Texas, at 4,700 feet, three hours from El Paso and three from Midland. The Paisano takes up the corner of Highland and El Paso, opposite the Presidio County Courthouse — the pink Italianate cake of a building that's the town's other landmark. Highland Avenue runs straight south to the Marfa Lights viewing area on US-67/90; the Chinati Foundation grounds are at the south edge of town.

The drive in from any direction is long, flat, and absent of light pollution. The night sky is part of why people come.

The building

Henry Trost, the prolific El Paso architect responsible for many of the great early-twentieth-century West Texas hotels, designed it in the Spanish-Renaissance idiom — terracotta tiles, arched arcades, an interior courtyard with a fountain, ironwork balconies. The lobby is intact: tile floors, beamed ceilings, a stone fireplace, period furniture, and a glass case of Giant memorabilia (script pages, signed photographs, the occasional Dean artifact). Brass and velvet show up in the lounge. The aesthetic is genuinely 1930s rather than referenced.

The rooms

Forty-one rooms, all different, organized around the courtyard and along upper-floor corridors. The James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor suites are the historical bookings — both are the actual rooms the actors stayed in, with period photos. Standard rooms are smaller, with high ceilings, simple wood furniture, and tile baths. From-rates open around $215, which for Marfa in season is reasonable. Wi-Fi is decent; cell service in town is generally fine.

Food & drink

Jett's Grill, off the lobby, is the hotel's restaurant — Texas plates, a serious bar, decent wine list. Non-guests can and do book it; in Marfa, where restaurants are limited, a kitchen open at dinner is a meaningful asset. Breakfast is served in the courtyard or restaurant. The bar is the social hub of the town in the off-season.

On the property

A small gift shop, a screening of Giant in the lobby in season, and a courtyard worth sitting in. There's no pool, no spa, no gym in any meaningful sense.

• Jett's Grill restaurant and bar
• Interior courtyard with fountain
• Giant memorabilia collection in lobby
• Walking distance to courthouse, galleries, Chinati Foundation pickup
• Open year-round

Who it's for

• Travelers in for Chinati and Judd's Block — the Paisano is downtown to all of it
• Film history readers who'll spend an hour in the Giant case
• Couples doing a long Texas road trip and wanting one historic stop
• Anyone who'd rather a 1930 hotel than a new-build cube

Who it's not for

• Travelers who need full resort amenities or a quiet design hotel
• Light sleepers — the historic building has thin walls in places
• Pet owners (check current policy with the front desk)

Nearby

The Chinati Foundation, two blocks south, requires advance booking and is the reason a lot of art people fly in to Marfa specifically. Judd's Block (the Architecture Studio) is around the corner. The Marfa Book Co. and Cobra Rock Boot Company are walkable. For food, the Capri (when open), Stellina, and Convenience West BBQ are the locals' picks. The Marfa Lights viewing platform is a few miles east on US-67/90 and is genuinely worth a 9 p.m. drive. Big Bend National Park is a long but rewarding day trip — ninety minutes south to Terlingua, then into the park.