Pecos's Orient Hotel Started as a Red-Sandstone Saloon

At Cedar and 1st streets, the building that houses the West of the Pecos Museum began as an 1896 saloon built from Pecos Valley red sandstone. R. S. Johnson opened the Orient Hotel around it in 1907, so the hotel carried an older drinking room inside its walls.

During the early years of Pecos Valley development, the Orient served as headquarters for land promoters, salesmen, and settler families. It was lodging, meeting place, and business address while people were trying to turn open land into farms, streets, and a lasting town. The customer list tells you what kind of room it was: promoters needed a place to meet buyers, salesmen needed a base, and settler families needed somewhere to land.

The building was later restored to house the museum and received a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation in 1964. That makes the museum building part of its own collection: the red sandstone, saloon core, and hotel rooms did not arrive after the story. They were already doing business inside it.