Hugo Hotel

The Hugo Hotel, which once stood at the corner of Sixth and Howard Streets, was built in nineteen hundred and nine. It served as the oldest hotel in the neighborhood for decades, providing a residence for many in the South of Market district. After a fire in nineteen eighty-seven gutted the structure, the building remained vacant for twenty-six years while its owners resisted repeated attempts by the city to purchase or rehabilitate the site. This prolonged standoff became a local symbol of urban blight and the complexities of city development.