El Cortez opened on Fremont Street on November 7, 1941. It is one of the oldest casino-hotel properties in Las Vegas and was downtown's first major resort. It is mostly Spanish Colonial Revival in style, though a 1952 remodel modernized the front.
The location at 6th Street and Fremont was originally considered too far from downtown, but the hotel quickly became very profitable. The first hotel had 59 rooms. A tower addition opened in 1984, and the hotel now has 364 rooms.
El Cortez was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 22, 2013. Wikipedia says it is one of the few Las Vegas casinos that has never changed its exterior facade, keeping the same signage and ranch-themed look for over seventy years.