This historic district, the Stevens Addition, includes a group of apartment buildings constructed between 1908 and 1923, the peak years of El Paso’s early economic boom, when housing was at a premium. The largest structure, the Palm Court Apartments (1913; c. 2005 restored, Wright and Dalbin Architects) at 329–331 W. Missouri, is built into the upslope of the hill. It is a four-story, tawny brick, U-shaped building with thirty-one units. Between the long wings, a courtyard (planted with palms, of course) steps up the slope past Mediterranean-styled arched entrances, concrete balconies and balustrades, to bracketed red tile roofs.
The Stevens Addition lies north of the Southern Pacific rail lines and Union Station. Originally it was connected by cross streets to Sunset Heights, rising to the north on the foothills of the Franklin Mountains. Construction of I-10 in the 1960s and Southwest University Park (EP11) isolated the single block district.