On US 90, on the western fringes of Marfa, sits the ghost of the Stardust Motel. Its chipped, faded blue sign melts into the washed denim hues of the West Texas Sky. And after dark, its neon lights still sometimes glow red, beckoning photographers and far-flung visitors alike. But long before it was known as the Stardust, before it ever became a popular roadside landmark, the property spent its heyday operating under a different name entirely.
It was 1950, and the Tevis family had just moved 2,000 miles from their native New Jersey to Texas to build a brand new motor court. By the late 1930s, the rise of car travel had ushered in an era of roadside getaways, and motels were popping up along highways and railroad towns all over the country. While business slowed during World War II, the industry was just beginning to take off again in the 1950s, and motor courts had become a popular lodging option, offering modest, individually detached rooms situated around a central courtyard.
Reeves, his wife Alma, and their three children, Reeves Jr., Sue, and Norma named the new property San Jacinto Courts. A history buff with a keen interest in the Texas Revolution, Reeves designed the hotel’s iconic star-topped art deco sign (originally painted red and tan) as an homage to the San Jacinto Monument in La Porte, east of Houston.
Building the hotel became a family project, and the Tevis children joined in to help with various administrative and construction tasks any time they weren’t in school. At the time, Marfa was readjusting back to life as a sleepy ranching community. Just a few years earlier, the local population reached a record high of 5,000 thanks to the military presence at the Marfa Army Airfield, which closed in 1945.
The hotel slowly expanded over the next few years, but it wasn’t until the summer of 1955 that Marfa and the Tevis family found themselves in the spotlight. That year, Hollywood megastars Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, and Rock Hudson came to town to film the epic drama Giant.
While the stars rented homes in town or rooms at the Hotel Paisano, some members of the crew stayed at San Jacinto Courts. In an interview with Texas author Carla Stewart, Sue Tevis Cunningham says she and her best friend endeared themselves to the crew by bringing them meals in the early hours of the morning and late into the night to accommodate their filming schedule. In return, some of the crew invited them to the set to witness the action.
“The famous scene with James Dean where the wildcat oil well shot oil sky high was shot just west of our motel,” Cunningham told Stewart. “Although I never met him, every morning James Dean would drive past the motel going a hundred miles an hour. At least it seemed like it as he waved on his way to the day’s shooting.”
Years later, business slowed, and the Tevis family moved away. San Jacinto Courts was sold and later renamed the Stardust Motel, its sign painted over. Once again, it became the site of another movie: 1993’s Flesh and Bone, starring Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, and James Caan. A fire destroyed the property a few years later. The owners restored the sign in 2015, and now, it stands alone, its faded blue paint and bright neon—which now reads Stardust Marfa, as the motel is long gone—surviving as a vestige of the great American road trip.
