On your right, look for the tall brick hotel with Tudor-style gables along the roofline and that big, bright red rooftop sign reading “HOTEL ALEX JOHNSON.”
This is the Hotel Alex Johnson, and in Rapid City it’s basically our downtown’s exclamation point. It opened in 1928, built by Alex Carlton Johnson… a railroad executive who clearly understood two things: trains bring people, and people need a good place to sleep when they get there. Construction kicked off on August 19, 1927... just one day before work started at Mount Rushmore. Rapid City was in a hurry back then.
Chicago architects Oldefest and Williams gave it this Tudor Revival look-brick, decorative stonework, and those storybook roof details-while the interior leaned into Western and Native American-inspired design. Inside, some original touches still hang around: a teepee-shaped chandelier, hand-drawn ceiling designs, and carved wooden figures of Native American chiefs. For early South Dakota, an eight-story hotel was a pretty bold move… and it’s still the tallest building in Rapid City. Around here, that counts as a skyscraper.
The name changed hands, too: sold in 1947, folded into Sheraton’s world from 1956, and then eventually reclaimed its original name in 1968. In 2016, they announced about a $7 million restoration-around $9 million today-to modernize the bones without losing the character.
And yes… it has a reputation. Guests report footsteps, voices, and the famous “Lady in White” tied to room 812. The hotel even offered ghost-hunting packages with an EMF reader, because why just sleep when you can also be mildly unsettled?
When you’re set, Pennington County Courthouse is a 7-minute walk heading south.
