The Alex Johnson Hotel: A Prairie Palace Turns One Hundred
South Dakota
On the corner of Sixth and Saint Joseph Streets in downtown Rapid City stands the Alex Johnson Hotel, opened in nineteen twenty-eight and still operating today after a full restoration. Alex Johnson was a vice president of the Chicago and North Western Railway who wanted a showpiece lodge at the gateway to the Black Hills. He hired architects to blend German Tudor exterior design with Lakota Sioux artwork and motifs in the interior, an attempt at honoring Indigenous craft traditions that was well-intentioned by the standards of its era, however imperfectly executed.
The hotel has accumulated a devoted ghost lore, appearing regularly on paranormal travel lists, though the eighth floor claims most of the stories. It remains one of the most intact historic hotels in the northern Great Plains.
