The hotel was designed by Trost & Trost and opened in 1912. This brick and terra cotta structure was the "dream hotel" of early El Paso businessman and promoter Zach White. Designed by the noted El Paso architectural firm of Trost and Trost, the structure was engineered to be fireproof and was modeled after buildings that had survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Throughout its history, Hotel Paso Del Norte has served travelers and tourists, has been an El Paso social center, and has been used as a headquarters for cattle trading ranchers. Numerous dignitaries from both the United States and Mexico have been guests here over the years. The large hotel lobby features a stained glass dome over twenty-five feet in diameter. During the Mexican Revolution, it was popular to watch firefights between the revolutionaries and the Mexican Army from the terrace on the top of the hotel. Some of the notable people who stayed at the hotel include Gloria Swanson, General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, General Alvaro Obregon, John Reed (journalist), Will Rogers, Enrico Caruso, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, the then Vice President Richard Nixon. In 2004, the hotel was extensively remodeled and renamed the Camino Real Hotel.