Across the street is the Toltec Hotel, built in 1910-11. It was along about that spot where in the 1870s, a young cowboy in town for his monthly binge and overly bibulous, was shot. He’d been warned twice by the sheriff against riding up and down the street firing his gun into the air and when he persisted the sheriff shot him. Dead. But as the man who told the story commented at the time, “The law must be enforced.” These days, they’d blame the barkeep.
Although the hotel always catered to commercial travelers and made no pretensions to the luxuries of the Columbian, it had some fine architectural details in the lobby and the facade is classically handsome with beautiful stonework on the first floor and across the top. With the decline of downtown hotels, it became a rooming house for a while, then stood empty and deteriorating for decades. Deemed a hazard, it was reluctantly condemned by the city but the demolition order was held in abeyance. It has been restored and refurbished, now housing street level commercial spaces, with the upper floors being "condo-type apartments," whatever that means. On the empty lot to the north is tenant parking and an elevator.
