Whatever happened to the Irvine Building, in Phoenix, Arizona?


If you lived in Phoenix anytime between 1879 and 1920, you remember the Irvine Building, which was on the southwest corner of Washington and 1st Street, built by Edward Irvine.

It was demolished in 1920 to make way for an impressive six-story building, as featured in an article in the Phoenix paper, which sadly was never built. Here it is:



It's funny how quickly we forget failures, and this one sounded so promising! I really have no idea why they never got around to building it - it was in the '20s, when there was plenty of money around, and plenty of credit. It didn't all crash until 1929, you know. Maybe someday I'll find out. Here's a link to the article on the Library of Congress site if you want to read more: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020558/1920-02-01/ed-1/seq-15/

1963



Anyway, the next building that I know of for sure was there was the hamburger place, also called Crystal Tower Hamburgers. My top history adventurer did as much research as is possible on it, and exactly when it was built couldn't be determined, but it was there in 1947, and was gone by 1972, when this area became a parking lot. By the way, that's the Ellingson Building back there, and Cactus Way. Here's the 1947 Sanborn map, it's marked as a restaurant (north is to the left, by the way):


The next picture I have is of Woolworths, which was across the street, and you can see that there's nothing there but a parking lot and a billboard for cigarettes. I'm gonna say that this is 1972, although it could be 1971. Note the Valley Bank "stop sign" back there on top of the Professional Building.


CityScape is there now, and it's what most people who live in Phoenix know about. Construction started in 2008 and was completed in 2012. I'm sure that Edward Irvine would approve!



Edward Irvine in 1890.

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Comments

  1. HawkeyeBobMarch 10, 2022 at 10:08 AM

    All good stuff, Brad. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brad HallMarch 10, 2022 at 11:17 AM

      Thanks, Bob! Now I'm hungry for a Crystal Tower Hamburger, I wonder if they were any good?

      Delete

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