The Hotel del Prado, the work of Carlos Obregón Santacilia, showed the face of modern Mexico to its visitors.Casasola Archive, National Photo Library, INAH
The corner of Balderas and Avenida Juárez would host this property that saw the walks like Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner or inclusive, Richard Nixon. For the fifties, the hotel charged great notoriety for luxury in its finishes that were constantly remodeled, as well as the creation, inside nightclubs and restaurants such as the Capri Cabaret or the Paolo restaurant, respectively. Since 1919 the architectural program also had a theater that would later transform into the 'Regis Cinema'recognized by its art billboard.
The morning of September 19, 1985, the earthquake caused the floors to above the pharmacy and Capri collapsed completely. At approximately 7:50 in the morning an explosion caused by gas leakage finished collapsing the building from which 136 bodies were recovered from both personnel and guests. Currently, where the Hotel Regis was located, the Plaza de la Solidaridad stands, adjacent to the Central Alamedain honor of all those killed by the earthquake.
To some streets of the Regis, in the streets of Revillagigedo and Avenida Juárez, there was another hospitality giant: The Hotel del Prado, the work of the architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia that, at the end of 1947, It represented Mexico's modern face for its visitors. The Hotel del Prado housed in his lobby, since 1960 when he was moved from the Versailles room, the mural Sleep of a Sunday afternoon in the Alamedaby Diego Rivera, who after the earthquakes and the demolition of the hotel was moved to his own museum designed by José Luis Benlliure Galán, in front of the Alameda.
In the distance, at the crossroads of insurgents and reform, The Continental Hotel – Famoso for the violin show of Olga Breeskin – would also go down and it would be the first building dynamited after the earthquakes to begin the lifting of debris.
Workplaces that ended in rubble
Just next to the Hotel Regis, the building that accommodated one of the most famous department stores in Mexico was lifted in the second half of the twentieth century: Salinas and Rochathat after the earthquake he collapsed completely with some of his mayors and night guards inside. Crossing Avenida Juárez, In the corner of Azueta the neocolonial -style Aztlán building would collapse too Although in his case, he was abandoned since 1979 when another earthquake had damaged him.