Standing 165 ft high, the second largest structure in San Angelo, The Cactus Hotel has a two story lobby and mezzanine, with thirteen additional floors originally used by guests. Currently, the lobby and mezzanine are host to several shops, there is an elegant city club ( The Top of The Cactus Club ) on the fifteenth floor, and several offices in the lower floors.
The bottom two floors (including the mezzanine and lobby) are equipped with beautiful pillars of marble and tile. There is a grand staircase, as well as several large rooms, including the famous Crystal Ball Room. These two floors are often rented out for special occasions. Weddings, private parties, and the Central High School Prom are all held in the Cactus.
The exterior of the Cactus is a tan limestone, capped with red tile on the roof. The large iron sign on the roof spells out the name "Hotel Cactus." It stands high above downtown San Angelo, and it has been reported you can see the building from fifteen miles away.
Sadly, the six floors below the Top of The Cactus Club have practically been gutted. Water damage from leaky pipes and unfinished refurbishings have left these floor in ruins. At least, that's what people see from this side of the Shroud.
The Cactus Hotel was one of the first Hilton Hotels ever built. Local legends describes it as the second, although it is a matter of public record there were at least five Hiltons already in existence at the time of its construction.
The Hilton opened in June of 1929, one of the fanciest, most well equipped, and most well serviced Hotels in the nation. Hopes were high, and the investors were brimming with the optimism of the 1920s.
Four months later, however, their optimism proved to be short-lived. With the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the Cactus Hotel began its long descent.
While San Angelo and the rest of Texas were not hit as hard of the rest of the nation, Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels, was. Despite looming economic catastrophe, he refused to close any of his hotels, reduce levels of service, or even stop construction of his new hotels.
This led to some interesting practices. One of the most memorable was the serving of half sticks of butter in the dining room to cut costs. But it was to no avail.
In 1934 the Hilton chain of Hotels was purchased by the Moody family of Houston. Conrad Hilton was to remain as manager of his hotels.
In 1936, however, Hilton successfully sued the Moodys for breach of contract, and regained ownership of all of his hotels except for two. One of those was the San Angelo Hilton.
The Moodys decided on adding the hotel to a chain of Hotels they owned. A contest was held to rename the hotel, and the winner was The Cactus Hotel.
The Cactus Hotel continued operating much as before under the new ownership. Problems did not wait long to arise.
The Cactus was expensive to maintain, and was often neglected when time came for renovations. The only time the carpets were replaced during this period were in 1946, after WWII.
In 1962, the Moodys decided the Cactus was too expensive to maintain, and much too expensive to upgrade. They offered the hotel at an auction for a starting bid of $400,000. The highest bid was $165,000.
It took another year, but the Moodys finally decided to just give the hotel away to the Baptist Memorial Hospital System.
Between 1963 and 1983, the Cactus Hotel wore several hats. The Baptist Memorial Hospital Systems intentions were to turn the building into a retirement centre. But a clause in the contract stated that they also must continue to rent rooms to the occasional guest. In addition, there were the shops on the ground floor.
All of these responsibilities made the hotel a nightmare to manage. During the first seven years, the Cactus chewed up and spit out nine different managers.
Operations continued to run smoothly, but it was estimated the Baptists were losing over $300,000 a year on the hotel. Finally, in 1982, they decided to sell the building.
In 1983, the Cactus Hotel was abandoned as a retirement facility, and would never again be open to guests for the night. The building and parking garage were sold for only $10,000 to an architect in Austin who intended to refurbish the facility.
There were grand plans for the hotel. A swimming pool would be added. Modern heating and cooling was to be installed. And most importantly, the entire hotel would once again posses the grandeur and style it had when it was built.
After spending several million dollars, $700,000 of which was spent on the lobby alone, the architect and special corporation built for the project went bankrupt.
The property was again put up for auction. Also up for auction were the myriad of fine furnishing, paintings, and machines which had survived in the hotel for so many years. But the building itself had no takers.
Finally, in 1992, the Cactus was bought once more by a private individual. It changed slowly into it's present state, and for the first time in almost 70 years, the Cactus Hotel is returning a profit.
It was also in 1999 that Anton Korn came to power as the Anacreon of the Necropolis. Not surprisingly, one of his first acts was to move the citadel from its old location at Fort Concho to the building which he himself designed, the Cactus Hotel.
Floors 9-14 are very different on the other side of the Shroud. The original furniture from the hotel (now in relic form) aligns the halls and rooms.
Only four of the six vacant floors of the Cactus were originally occupied by San Angelo's ghostly citizens. They were divided equally among the Legions, with two per floor.
With the fall of Stygia, a remarkable change occurred. Seeing his government as weak and powerless in the times of crisis, Korn went looking for allies. And what he found were the Guilds, and the Stygian Postal System.
At first, the Guilds of San Angelo were skeptical of the offer. It took three invitations, and four promises of good will for the first guild to at least speculate about the possibility of moving in.
Finally, the Artificers accepted, and the Pardoners soon followed. Subsequently they were each given 1/4 of the lowest of the six floors. The other nine guilds who decided to take the offer were given equal partitions of the floor directly below the Top Of The Cactus. At first, this was seen as a symbolic gesture, with the most powerful of the guilds receiving more space, but on a lower floor. It soon became apparent, however, that the floor below the club would sway in high winds, and when parties are thrown above, the ruckus is intolerable.
Other things became apparent not long after as well. As part of the agreement, the Guilds would be allowed to operate freely as long as they abided by rules and regulations. Words like "license to practice" were thrown around. Not surprisingly, some guilds have been chafing under these rules; most notably the Proctors and Puppeteers.
Surprisingly, though, it was the Chanteurs and Sandmen who left first. They enjoyed the patronage, they enjoyed being involved in the making of decisions, but they found the atmosphere of the Cactus stifling. It was agreed the Chanteurs would move to the nearby San Angelo Auditorium, and the Sandmen would reside in the Texas Theatre a few block south. They would vacate their offices, officially dividing the top floor into eight partitions: Seven for the remaining top floor guilds, and one for the two absent guilds usage whenever dealings with the government were needed.
Some bad blood was spilled, though, when the Haunters and Spooks refused to join. They were concerned about how much this new government set up by Korn was going to regulate their activities.
The offer was never extended to the Alchemists, Solicitors, or Mnemoi.
The final 1/2 of the lowest floor was given to IDES, the Iron Delivery Express Service. At first, Korn saw the addition of a post office as a confidence booster for his new government. After all, it showed that just because of the Maelstrom, the government was going to shut down. Services would still run, and the proverbial mail would get through. But IDES has turned out to be a powerful ally in these trying times. San Angelo rests on a critical route between the Dallas Headquarters and the regional IDES headquarters in Mexico City. Subsequently IDES has invested a substantial amount of pathos and Wraithpower into the Citadel.
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