The Luhrs Building is a historic ten-story building located at 11 West Jefferson in

Downtown Phoenix Downtown Phoenix is the central business district (CBD) of the City of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is located in the heart of the Phoenix metropolitan area or Valley of the Sun. Phoenix, being the county seat of Maricopa County and ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

. It was listed on the

Phoenix Historic Property Register The Phoenix Historic Property Register is the official listing of the historic and prehistoric properties in the city of Phoenix, the capital and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona. History The register was established on 1986 with the ai ...

in 1990. It was built by local businessman George H. N. Luhrs, an original Phoenix City Council member from 1881–85, at a cost of $553,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

, and opened on May 17, 1924. At the time, it was the tallest building in Phoenix and was said to be the largest building between

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. In 2009, the building was renovated with the help of a $500,000 historic preservation grant.

Architecture

The L-shaped Luhrs Building was designed in the

Beaux-Arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...

by the

architectural firm of

Trost & Trost Trost & Trost Architects & Engineers, often known as Trost & Trost, was an architecture firm based in El Paso, Texas. The firm's chief designer was Henry Charles Trost, who was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1860. Trost moved from Chicago to Tucs ...

. The building is faced with brown brick, with elaborate

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorpho ...

ornamentation on the uppermost two floors, and a heavy

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

at the top. Jay J. Garfield, a well known local builder was the contractor for the building. The building's ground floor was leased by the US Treasury Dept. from 1924–1935. The 7th–10th floors were the original location of the Arizona Club, including dining rooms, lounges, a library, and bedrooms for club members. When the Arizona Club moved out of the Luhrs Building in 1971, the upper floors were also converted to office floor space. The 6th floor was originally occupied by

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co- ...

References

{{Coord, 33.4469, -112.0741, display=title, region:US-AZ_type:landmark Skyscraper office buildings in Phoenix, Arizona Buildings and structures completed in 1924 Trost & Trost buildings Beaux-Arts architecture in Arizona

Architecture

See also

References