The San Juan Hotel was built in 1920 to serve as an anchor for social activities in the Rio Grande Valley and to attract visitors to the growing town of San Juan. Designed by E.W. Slaughter and constructed by Charles Newman, it was built of locally sourced brick from the San Juan Plantation kiln. The hotel underwent an exterior redesign in 1928 by architect Paul G. Silber, adopting its iconic Spanish/Mission Revival style. Over the decades, the San Juan Hotel became a notable local landmark, associated with historical figures such as Texas Ranger Tom Mayfield. The hotel closed in the mid-1960s and remained vacant until the early 1980s when it was purchased and restored by the Sigle family, who operated it until 1994. It was recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1985.

In 2023, the long-neglected and vacant hotel was sold to the City of San Juan with plans to construct a new community center on the property. As part of their downtown master plan, the city has commissioned a study of the San Juan Hotel, which suggests that the structure is unsalvageable. Advocates for the hotel's preservation argue for obtaining a second opinion from an experienced preservation architect and exploring adaptive reuse options that would allow one of the most visible historic landmarks in the Rio Grande Valley to survive.