Downtown through the years

Follow this visual history of downtown Phoenix through the decades. I use the historic boundaries of downtown: Fillmore Street to the north; the railroad tracks to the south; Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street to west and east respectively. Click on a photo to see a larger image.

The early 1900s:

Looking east on Washington Street from the Ford Hotel. Redewill's music store was owned by the family that built the 1914 bungalow where we lived in Willo in the 2000s. We placed an Interior Department National Register of Historic Places plaque on it, the A.C. Redewill House.

The twenties:

Central Avenue heading south from Monroe Street, with the Hotel Adams the multi-story building on the left, and Central Methodist Church (ME, South), Heard Building, and Luhrs Building on the right.

Second Avenue and Washington in 1929. The awnings are on the red-brick Fleming Building. From left to right in the distance are the new Hotel Westward Ho, the Professional Building, and the Hotel Adams annex (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Read more about this decade here.

The thirties:

Looking west on Washington from First Street. The tall building in the center is the Phoenix Title and Trust, now Orpheum Lofts, and to the right the Heard Building, also still standing.

Farley Drugs and the French Italian Cafe at the Ford Hotel, Second Avenue and Washington (Brad Hall collection, photographer unknown).

Central and Adams, with the Professional Building under construction. Note the ornate street lamps and the ticket office for the Santa Fe Railway (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Central and Washington looking north as a streetcar whizzes past (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Read more about this decade here.

The forties:

Second Street and Van Buren in 1940. The top of the Security Building is out of the lens (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

We're looking southeast into the retail district. At right is the edge of the Professional Building (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Central looking north past Adams, decked out for Christmas (photographer unknown).

The New Deal's WPA completed the Central Avenue underpass in 1940, the southern end of downtown. Another underpass at 17th Avenue was also built. The boxcar is near the Southern Pacific freight station, out of sight to the right (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

An overhead shot shows First Avenue and Monroe in 1946. Far left is the Phoenix Title and Trust. At right is the Government Block, including the headquarters of the Salt Rover Project (McCulloch Bros.Collection/ASU Archives.

Read more about this decade here.

The fifties:

Downtown's neon show looking north from Washington Street (photographer unknown).

Washington and Second streets, with Penney's and the Fox Theater on the left (photographer unknown).

This overhead shot features the City/County Building, low center, with the back of the Luhrs Tower and Luhrs Building. The new First National Building is south of the Westward Ho; today it's part of the ASU downtown campus (photographer unknown).

The new JC Penney Building is under construction at Second Street and Jefferson in 1953. To the right is the Fox Theater (photographer unknown).

Commerce is dense and convenient in this 1955 view of Central Avenue south of Adams Street (Brad Hall collection, photographer unknown).

Read more about this decade here.

The sixties:

Central looking south from Fillmore in 1960. Although Midtown is already chipping away at downtown's primacy, the urban fabric remains in place. Near right is the Post Office. The revolving neon Valley Bank sign is atop the professional building. The sky is astonishingly clear (photographer unknown).

In 1963, this Washington and Second Street view shows the new Municipal Building and the skeleton of the County Administration, courts, and jail complex (photographer unknown).

In 1967, Johnny's Records, The Stop Restaurant, and other shops on First Street try to survive city hall's neglect of downtown retail and demolition of buildings (photographer unknown).

Driving west on Washington toward First Street. The Fox Theater's days are numbered (photographer unknown).

The boxing and wrestling arena Madison Square Garden was still in business on Seventh Avenue north of Washington. (This is a photo taken from circa 1990s, photographer unknown).

Read more about this decade here.

The seventies:

The city bus terminal replaced the Fox Theater. Behind it are the new white tower for the Arizona Bank and the new Hotel Adams (photographer unknown).

This aerial looking south from Van Buren and Seventh Street shows how the city clear-cut blocks of commercial buildings. This shocking act of civic vandalism continued for decades and included incalculable losses, including of territorial buildings between Seventh Avenue and the capitol (photographer unknown).

Demolition of the Fleming Building in 1970 to make way for the soulless First National Bank tower (photographer unknown).

The new skyline, including Valley Center, the tallest building in the state. The Hyatt Regency offers a revolving restaurant. Peeking between the Luhrs Tower and Building is Patriot's Square, a failed public space (Patricia Matus Collection).

Brutalist architecture marks the new Phoenix Civic Plaza, including Symphony Hall and the convention center (photographer unknown).

It's 1975 and the Arizona Bank tower, left, and Hyatt Regency, right, are under construction. In the foreground, historic business buildings are being demolished to make way for Patriots' Square (Brad Hall collection, photographer unknown).

Read about this decade here.

Fast forward to revival:

Controversial though they were for some, Jerry Colangelo's insistence on relocating the Suns downtown and then the Diamondbacks' stadium were critical to kickstarting a downtown that saw millions of visitors a year (photographer unknown).

The Phoenix Biomedical Campus began with the successful recruitment of T-Gen, followed by the UA College of Medicine. It moved too slow and never reached Jeff Trent's vision of becoming another Texas Medical Center, the campus succeeded in a "meds and eds" strategy downtown (GPEC photo).

Demolition and replacement of most of Civic Plaza and replacing it with a spacious and eye-pleasing Convention Center, along with more hotel space, allowed Phoenix to get into the big leagues of this important sector of tourism (photographer unknown).

CityScape, completed in 2012, filled in the empty blocks of Patriots Square and east, the first major private investment downtown in the new century. It's less inward-facing than 1989's Arizona Center, and less car dependent. Also, timing is everything because it knitted together other big people-centric projects.

ASU's downtown campus opened in 2006 and proved to be transformative over the next 15 years. Now spread over several blocks, the campus is home to multiple colleges and schools, including journalism and law. It was a heavy lift, with Phoenix passing a bond issue to help with public money. The investment has more than paid off.

The latest addition to the campus is Fusion on First, on the southwest corner of First Avenue and Fillmore Street. Thirteen floors of apartment-style student housing are above a three-story high-tech innovation hub (City of Phoenix).

Light rail (WBIYB) linked all this together, especially the downtown and Tempe campuses (Valley Metro photo). The result isn't a traditional downtown or one Phoenix could have had with some foresight and leadership in the 1960s. But it's a remarkable rebirth and keeps booming.

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.