An iconic two-story hotel that has attracted loyal guests since the Eisenhower era in southeastern New Mexico is now on the market with an asking price of $1.4 million.
Located at 627 Sudderth Drive in the ski resort town of Ruidoso, the two-story Sitzmark Chalet Inn sits on a nearly one-acre site and is designated as a Class B structure.
Built in 1959, the building was originally home to the Turf Motel, a business whose advertisements listed its “ultra-modern units,” pink/beige wall-to-wall carpeting, and a “handsome upright radio cabinet in every room.”
The life of the hotel in many ways paralleled the life of what has proven to be a thriving resort skiing industry in the town of 7,700 people. The town’s Chamber of Commerce officially identified skiing as a priority industry in the late 1950s, initially seeing up to 25,000 skiers every winter.
Originally a five-unit motel, the structure saw the addition of a dozen more rooms several years later and a name change to its current Sitzmark Chalet.
Surrounded by mountains and pine trees, the property is particularly visible owing to the presence of the formidable, but welcoming, Sassy the Sasquatch statue to the front of hotel.
The hotel is being listed by the Ruidoso-based realtor TRU South Real Estate.
October 31, 2024
By Garry Boulard
