Downtown Report: Luhrs Tower and Office Building
8 Comments Published December 30th, 2008 in Obsessions
I actually worked at the Luhrs Building on Central and Jefferson several years ago. During the lowest point of my last bout with unemployment, I spent a couple of weeks at ten dollars an hour cleaning out the office of a guy who worked behind the main building in the Annex. In addition to my hourly rate, I also got a ladder and a carpenter’s level in a swell case, as well as a handful of empty jewel cases. I also got a tour of a piece of Phoenix history that up until then, I’d never really explored.
Erected the 1920s, the Luhrs Office Buidling and Tower were Phoenix’s very first skyscrapers. The two-story 1914 Luhrs Central Building that separates them served as Phoenix’s first post office. The top four floors of the office building originally housed something called “The Arizona Club,” a hale institution that continues to this day under different haunts. But by the time I came to work there, both buildings and their annex offered nothing but seedy office space. But the charm that remained was undeniable. From the funky parking lot ramp-ways and the brass mail schutes to the marble walls in the lobby and the barber shop by the elevators, the place threw off some serious ambiance. I was badly smitten.
Since everything else downtown is being demolished, gutted or re-purposed, I knew it was only a matter of time for the Luhrs collection. Recently, I was summoned to the area for jury duty. I spent a relaxing afternoon away from work, dozing, listening to music, and stumbling from courtroom to courtroom before I was finally released. That evening, as I walked from the courthouse back to my car, I noticed that the windows on the Luhrs Office Building were all boarded up.
The renovation of the two main historic buildings is being carried out by new owners with the approval of the Office of Historic Preservation. However, it sacrifices the connecting arcade, the southern annex and the Luhrs Central Building, as well as the fifties-era parking structure in the back. According to one city official, plans include “a full-service, AAA, well-branded hotel; some historic office buildings; a contemporary high-rise building in the center; and then another building over where the parking garage is.”
Given the direction the economy’s moving — with condo developers backing out of projects up and down the central corridor to the tune of over a thousand units at last count — who knows, we may have the boards in place of the historic window glass for many months to come. But I like the boarded-up aesthetic, so I grabbed my camera and my walking around lens and went on a commando mission. Unfortunately, my low light stealth shots from inside the gutted structure didn’t come out so good, but I got decent coverage of the outside:
In the aught-0s, when I was a little kidlet, one of my uncles (an attorney by trade) worked in the Luhrs Tower. Veddy, veddy upscale at the time. I have very vague memories of visiting him once. He used to be visited by the eccentric Hattie Moser .. famous quote from her: “There’s nothing I like better than a good lawsuite.”
Nice shots, thanks for those. Phoenix just doesn’t seem to be able to forget itself fast enough.
I wonder whether you ever went inside the Security Building? A while back some friends and I had a chance to urban explore it during broad daylight. (It was being renovated–maybe still is, I don’t know–and most of the workers were off eating and the ones that were there were dissuaded from asking us what the hell so long as we walked around nodding and observing thoughtfully.)
Anyway, it has a lot of nice features, but my favorite definitely has to be the roof. The top floor used to be the penthouse home of (Valley National Bank’s) Walter Bimson and he had a lawn planted on the roof, and it’s still there. It was odd to see an old-school push mower sitting up there. I’d love to have the gardening concession there….
I never have been up in that one. I’m just too late to the party for some of these beauties.
I did notice the other day, however, that the old Hannys building has had its renovation completed is now open for business…as a restaurant/club.
Does anyone know when the Luhrs Hotel closed? Or when the hotel first opened? Would love to know as I have an old glass from hotel. It has red lettering, “Luhrs Hotel” on it with a senor & senorita dancing. Nothing special, but I like it.
Try this link, Trampers!
http://www.twilightsw.com/luhrs/phoenix.html
And now, the new owners have a site devoted to the renovation:
http://www.luhrscitycenter.com/index.php
When I was 4 or so (in 1957), my mom & I dropped my Grandma off at the Luhrs Hotel for a meeting. I remember her waving to me from the front of the hotel. For some reason I got it in my head that I’d never see Grandma again, and I cried & cried as we drove back to Tempe. Then in 1981 when I was back in Phoenix for a visit I was having lunch with some friends at the Nogales restaurant at 2nd & Washington, right next to where the old Skaggs department store had been & across from the old JC Penneys. Of course, they’re all gone now, along with The Fox Theatre, The Mandarin Inn on Skid Row and numerous other funky and wonderful places in downtown Phoenix. Afterwards we were walking through downtown & I saw that the Luhrs Hotel was in the process of being demolished. I asked my friend why this was happening and she replied “because it’s beautiful, and they’re going to put an ugly building in its place.” What a heartbreaking moment this was for me. I left Phoenix in 1972 and I’ve never looked back. Phoenix is a plastic, fake place that has absolutely no appreciation for its history.
I remember when they knocked that down. It received decent coverage in the media– that there was gonna be a really cool explosion…