Medical Arts Building, Neo-Gothic hotel in San Antonio, United States
The Medical Arts Building, now the Emily Morgan Hotel, is a 13-story Neo-Gothic tower of 205 feet (60 m) near the Alamo in the Alamo Plaza Historic District. Architect Ralph Cameron designed it in 1924; the exterior was kept intact when the interior was gutted and rebuilt for the 1984 hotel conversion.
Architect Ralph Cameron designed the building, completed in 1924 as the Medical Arts Building, with doctors' offices and a 50-bed hospital. It stood 205 feet tall and was San Antonio's tallest building until the Milam Building surpassed it in 1928. After the medical facilities moved out, it became office space in 1976, was remodeled and renamed the Emily Morgan Hotel in 1984, and was bought by the DoubleTree brand of Hilton in 2012.
The building's name survives in the Emily Morgan Hotel, named after a woman said to have been a servant in Santa Anna's camp during the 1836 Battle of the Alamo. The hotel markets itself as one of San Antonio's most haunted sites, and staff have reported doors closing on their own and phones ringing with no one on the line.
The building stands at 705 East Houston Street, a block from the Alamo in the Alamo Plaza Historic District. It now operates as the Emily Morgan Hotel, so interior access is for guests and patrons rather than general sightseeing. Visitors can view the Neo-Gothic exterior and its 205-foot height from the plaza and nearby streets.
The building's reputation for hauntings is a claim the hotel itself makes: it calls itself one of the most haunted places in San Antonio. Staff have reported doors closing on their own and phones ringing with no one on the line, and the 600 men said to have died at the Alamo nearby are sometimes linked to the site.
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