This 14-story, 250-room former Hilton Hotel still dominates San Angelo’s skyline. Built by Belvedere B. Hail and immediately leased to Conrad N. Hilton as he was assembling his regional hotel chain, Anton F. Korn and B. M. Morgan’s design fits the center of a city that was growing wealthy from oil exploration in surrounding counties. The hotel slab sits on a wide base of rusticated cast stone with glass shop fronts on E. Twohig and S. Oakes Street. Cast-stone belt courses mark the fifth and eleventh floors, and a cast-stone entablature sits under a dark-metal cornice of modillions. In between, the building’s shaft is faced in buff brick, with brick quoins at the corners. The lobby, with its wide skylight and monumental square columns, focuses dramatically on a grand staircase. Renamed the Cactus in 1964, the hotel was saved from demolition in the 1990s. It has since been used primarily as offices for civic groups and for special events.