Rialto Hotel

Rialto Hotel. 201 S. Main St.. In 1934, Julio Astoriquia and his wife Maria Astoriquia invested their hard-saved money to buy two lots on Main Street in Hailey for construction of a hotel. Julio emigrated from the Basque region of Spain to the United States in 1913. He worked as a sheep herder until after World War I when the sheep industry suffered heavy losses that continued through the Great Depression. , The Rialto Hotel was the first Basque-American owned business constructed on Main Street in Hailey and is significant as an example of important commercial development in Hailey during the Great Depression. Before the 1930s. Basque residents and businesses were located on Hailey's River Street, south of the "red light district; or houses of prostitution. Local building contractors and later Hailey mayor John M. ("Jack") Rutter arranged a mortgage of $11,900 with Julio Astoriquia. The mortgage covered the costs of the lots on Main Street and subsequent construction of building there. Rutter supervised the hotel's construction, which started in August and was completed on November 22, 1934. The Rialto Hotel did well enough that the Astoriquias had paid off their mortgage by 1938. , The Astoriquia family owned the Rialto Hotel until 1973. It was the longest-operated Basque boardinghouse in Blaine County. The building was used as a bar and restaurant for several more years, and was renamed the Hailey Hotel in 1980. The building is listed on the National Register of Historical Places.