The Cecil was built in 1924[8] by three hoteliers—William Banks Hanner, Charles L. Dix and Robert H. Schops—[9] as a destination for business travelers and tourists.[4] Designed by Loy Lester Smith in the Beaux Arts style, and constructed by W. W. Paden,[10] the hotel cost $1.5 million to complete and boasted an opulent marble lobby with stained-glass windows, potted palms, and alabaster statuary. The three hoteliers invested about $2.5 million[10] in the enterprise, with the knowledge that several similar hotels had been established elsewhere downtown, but within five years of its opening, the United States sank into the Great Depression. Although the hotel flourished as a fashionable destination throughout the 1940s [citation needed], the decades beyond saw the hotel decline, as the nearby area known as Skid Row became increasingly populated with transients.[5] As many as 10,000 homeless people lived within a four-mile (6 km) radius.[11]