In 1954, Conrad Hilton made a $111 million deal, which at the time represented the greatest merger in hotel history and the largest real estate transaction the world had ever known. Hilton bought the Statler Hotel Company, a portfolio of properties that included eight hotels in operation and two more in construction. The hotel system had been formed when former Dallas Mayor R.L. Thornton, with a number of other local business and community leaders, thought that the city needed more hotels and room for conventions as the city grew following World War II. Two years after purchasing the hotel company, Hilton finished the Statler Dallas for $16 million. The hotel quickly became an icon of mid-20th century design, and was the largest in the Southwest when it opened and the only major hotel to be built in downtown Dallas for 30 years. In 2018, The Statler Dallas, now The Statler Dallas, Curio Collection by Hilton, became the 300th hotel inducted into Historic Hotels of America®, joining fellow former Statler hotel Capital Hilton. Browse photos from the major real estate deal and one of the historic hotels it produced.