With the eighteenth National Irrigation Congress coming to Pueblo in 1910, city leaders felt the need to spruce things up, as well as find accommodations for the hundreds of people about to converge on the town. Pueblo’s business leaders found one solution to the problem by adding onto the existing Grand Hotel at Eighth and Santa Fe.

The capacity of the substantial Grand, built in 1888, doubled with this h this new addition in the Spanish Mission Revival style. Not only was the building able to house more people, but it provided a source of pride for the local citizens in its beauty and modernity. In honor of the coming event, the name was changed to the Hotel Congress, and in the 1930s, the original structure was remodeled in the same Spanish Mission style as the 1910 addition. By mid-century, the Hotel Congress seemed outdated to some, and it was demolished in 1959.

• Pueblo, Pueblo County

• Date of Construction: 1910

• Architect: Frances Cooper

• Date of Demolition: 1959

• Replaced by: Cornell’s Restaurant & Townhouse Motel