Hotel Settles

Will R. and Lillian Settles built the hotel after oil was found on their ranch, and it opened on October 1, 1930. Abilene architect David Castle designed a fifteen-story concrete tower with 150 rooms, a restaurant and a pharmacy, and for years it was the tallest building between Fort Worth and El Paso. Its timing was poor. The Depression cut into the family's oil income, and they sold within two years. The hotel passed through several owners, and its grill served Elvis Presley, Lawrence Welk and Herbert Hoover, as well as Big Spring's own Jerry Allison, drummer for Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

The oil bust that followed the 1970s energy crisis emptied the town's businesses, and the Settles closed in 1982. For about thirty years it stood empty. Owners stripped out stone, wood and metal, and pigeons moved into the upper floors. The town never gave up on it: in the 1990s residents paid, at more than $130 apiece, to replace the broken windows.

In 2006 G. Brint Ryan, who grew up in Big Spring, bought the building and put $30 million into restoring it. The grand ballroom was rebuilt, and rooms were named for the Texas and Pacific Railway, the Cosden oil company and other pieces of local history. The hotel sits on the old Bankhead Highway route through town, and the lobby is open to anyone who walks in.