1930 Spanish Revival hotel in Marfa that headquartered the cast of Giant (1955) — James Dean's final film — and draws recurring reports of a woman in white on the second floor.
207 N Highland Ave, Marfa, TX 79843
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Hotel rooms; lobby and Jett's Grill accessible to non-guests.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic hotel with courtyard; mixed accessibility on upper floors
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1930 · National Register of Historic Places (1978) · Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (1979) · Giant (1955) film production headquarters · Henry C. Trost / Trost & Trost Architecture · James Dean final film location
Hotel Paisano stands at 207 N Highland Avenue in Marfa, Texas, and was designed by Henry C. Trost of the El Paso firm Trost & Trost — the same architect responsible for the Gage Hotel in Marathon and the Holland Hotel in Alpine. Construction finished in late 1929, and the hotel opened in 1930 just as the stock market was collapsing. The building takes a U-shaped plan with a fifty-by-fifty-foot central courtyard anchored by a large fountain, all executed in Spanish Revival style.
The hotel entered popular memory in summer 1955 when director George Stevens selected Presidio County as the primary location for Giant, Warner Bros.' adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel. More than 300 cast and crew members stayed at the Paisano during the shoot, including James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson. Dean was playing Jett Rink, a ranch hand turned oil baron, in what would be his final screen performance before his death in a car accident in September 1955 — weeks after the Texas portion of filming wrapped.
The hotel declined over the following decades and fell into disrepair, but was purchased at auction in March 2001 by Joe and Lanna Duncan for $185,000 and reopened after renovation with 41 rooms. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1978, and designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1979. Today it operates as part of the 223 Collection and houses Jett's Grill, a memorabilia room dedicated to the Giant production, and a seasonally heated pool.
Sources
The Hotel Paisano's paranormal reputation centers on two recurring figures. A woman in a white dress has been sighted multiple times on the second floor and in the courtyard, and an old man has been reported in the lobby area. Hotel manager Vicki Barge has confirmed these accounts, noting that guests from separate visits have independently described the same two figures. The woman in white is the subject of the hotel's best-known paranormal video clip, in which investigators from Travel Channel's Portals to Hell captured footage that hosts Jack Osbourne and Katrina Weidman attributed to a female presence.
Room 211 has developed the most documented list of specific complaints: flickering lights with no electrical explanation, cold drafts in a sealed room during summer, guests reporting the sensation of being touched or of someone sitting on the bed, and on a handful of occasions, objects found in positions guests did not leave them. Separate from Room 211, guests have reported hearing phantom conversations and laughter in the empty bar area late at night — a detail that predates the 2022 television investigation.
The hotel's connection to James Dean's last film has fed speculation about his presence as well, with some guests and staff claiming to see an apparition resembling Dean near the lobby entrance. This claim is not corroborated by contemporaneous accounts and is best treated as a later elaboration layered onto the older woman-in-white tradition. The Travel Channel investigation, which aired in 2022 as Season 3, Episode 11 of Portals to Hell, is the most thorough documented investigation of the property and found no confirmed cause for the reported phenomena.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The hotel's 41 rooms include the second floor where a woman in white is most frequently reported. Room 211 is cited by guests and the hotel's paranormal profile for unexplained lights, cold drafts, and shadowy figures. The original 1930 wing retains the highest concentration of reported activity.
Dine or have a drink in the hotel's ground-floor restaurant and bar, housed in the same Spanish Revival courtyard building where film crew from Giant gathered in summer 1955. A large collection of Giant memorabilia is on display, including photographs of Dean, Taylor, and Hudson taken during production.
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