Midtown wasn't planned. It simply escaped...any coherent city planning, zoning, or vision. Some say it was Phoenix's attempt at Los Angeles' Wilshire Boulevard, the nearly 16-mile avenue from downtown LA's financial district to Santa Monica. Maybe. But Phoenix never had the economic power or urban assets to support its version of Museum Row on the Miracle Mile, Century City, Koreatown, Beverly Hills, Westwood with UCLA, and subway lines. Wouldn't want to become another LA.
The two are comparable in that both were the sites of a majority of post-1960 skyscrapers. In Phoenix, it began with the building above. A turquoise-skinned International-style box, the Guaranty Bank Building opened in March 1960, designed by architect Charles Polacek and built by contractor David Murdock (who lived a remarkable life). At 252 feet, it dethroned the Hotel Westward Ho as the tallest building in Phoenix and the Southwest. On the top floor the Cloud Club offered a spectacular view.
Over the next thirty or more years, this was the heart of the city. For better and for worse.
The Camelback Towers was also complete in the photo (a mile north at Pierson). Park Central Shopping Center had replaced the Central Dairy in the late 1950s. Del Webb's Phoenix Towers at Central and Cypress Street, one of the few co-ops in the city, opened in 1957. Twin mid-rise office buildings were opened two blocks south of Thomas; they eventually included U-Haul's headquarters. Midtown, still unnamed, was coming together haphazardly. The central business district, including most shops and department stores, were still downtown (Fillmore to the railroad tracks, Seventh Avenue to Seventh Street).
Midtown took off in the sixties. Rosenzweig Center, developed by merchant princes Harry and Newton Rosenzweig (Harry also the head of the state GOP) rose with two, then three towers built by Del Webb. It was located at Central and Clarendon. To the west rose the Executive Towers. Why here? This was the original Rosenzweig family homestead. Like the other high-rises, it was rubber stamped by Phoenix City Council.
The development included Del Webb's Townhouse hotel and was close to the first McDonald's in Arizona (the first in the nation with golden arches and first franchise McDonald's outside California.). When Greyhound's corporate headquarters moved from Chicago in the late 1960s — the first of many such Fortune 500 relocations that Phoenix boosters expected — it took a tower at Rosenzweig Center.
Farther south, on the northeast corner of Central and Osborn, the "punchcard building" — its south face resembled a computer punchcard of the era — opened in 1964. The brainchild of Peruvian-born architect Wenceslaus Sarmiento, the 10-story curved building was accompanied by a pair of two-story rotundas. Nine more stories were added in 1972 and the plan called for a second tower, curved inward across a reflecting pond. The companion high-rise never happened. For many years this was headquarters of Western Savings.
Across from Park Central, First Federal Savings occupied Mayer Development's 26-story high-rise completed in 1965. Its showpiece was an outside elevator that led to a restaurant and bar on the top floor, where patrons could view the city from its now-tallest building. An identical-style little brother sat to the north and held a Playboy Club on the top floor.
More important than the buildings was the culture that accompanied Midtown. Cruising Central predated the skyscrapers, but it hit its wonder years with the district's boom. As teenagers cruised from Uptown Plaza down to McDowell, the Bob's Big Boy on the northeast corner of Central and Thomas was cruising Central central. Businesses complained about cars parked in front of their closed shops because of trash left behind. But in addition to the sheer joy of the event, cruising Central served an essential social purpose: It was how students from Phoenix Union, North, West, and Central high schools got to know each other and find boyfriends and girlfriends.
By 1970 Midtown was the place to be, for business, fun, shopping, even living in such towers as the Regency House. The fast culture spread to the city's underworld, too. Gangsters hung out at Durant's and bars such as the Ivanhoe. The latter was where John Harvey Adamson plotted the lethal bombing attack on Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles in 1976. It happened in the parking lot of the Clarendon House, now the Hotel Clarendon, four blocks away.
More than a decade of towers, accompanied by huge multi-level parking garages to the rear, left a toll. Much of the granular, human-scale fabric of much of Central was lost, including historic buildings such as the old (unmourned) Osborn School, while neighborhoods of bungalows were bulldozed for development that never materialized (even the McDonald's was demolished for a high-rise that never happened. But Midtown had its small pleasures, too, such as John Sing Tang's classic midcentury Helsing's coffee shop at Osborn and Central, the pre-faux Aztec temple of Woody's Macayo, chilidogs at Der Wienerschnitzel, and the verdant campus of the Phoenix Indian School.
By the '70s, the city tried to put some lipstick on this sprawled pig, coining the term Midtown and Central Corridor, as if they had meant this to be all along. Some leaders did envision Central and Osborn being the center of a new downtown. But that was opposed by Walter Bimson, the powerful president of Valley National Bank. He pushed against his board to build the new Valley Center headquarters in the real downtown, at Central and Van Buren. It was completed in 1972 and First National Bank of Arizona and the Arizona Bank also placed their new skyscrapers in the old core.
The good times for Midtown continued through the next decade. Continued construction included a 27-story glass tower rotated from the street went up just south of Osborn in 1980 for United Bank of Arizona. A companion, at 24 floors, held Home Federal Savings. On the southeast corner of Indian School Road and Central a brutalist 22-story office tower was built on spec the same year.
The three-tower Phoenix Plaza went up between 1988 and 1990 on the former site of Bob's, included the headquarters skyscraper of Qwest (the former Mountain Bell and now Century Link). Phelps-Dodge moved its headquarters to Phoenix and occupied a two-tower complex at Virginia in 1982. Greyhound changed its name and moved its headquarters south to the dramatic Viad Tower at Central and Palm Lane. Like the Sarmiento project, the 24-story copper "deodorant stick" was meant to have a companion. But it was not to be.
The S&L collapse/scandal led to the destruction of much of the Phoenix-based banking sector. What was left was gobbled up in mergers with out-of-state institutions that didn't need all that office space. Developers, many dependent on S&L funding, were ruined and those who survived left the Central Corridor for good, first for low-rise developments on Camelback and then to Scottsdale. Wall Street waged war on Viad for "poor" short-term returns, forcing it to sell units and become a shell of its former grandeur — by the turn of the century it moved to Scottsdale. Park Central lost most of its stores and was gradually converted to office space.
With the disintegration of Midtown and downtown's economic assets came the loss of civic stewards, especially John Teets of Greyhound/Viad. Meanwhile, a strange land-swap followed the closing of the Indian School, leaving land facing central in the hands of Barron Collier, promptly land-banked, and an isolated park that never lived up to its potential. Cruising Central died. It all added up to a tectonic loss that took decades to find some recovery, and finally a renaissance of the Central Corridor, including the successful construction of light rail (WBIYB).
Midtown Gallery (click on photo for a larger image):
The Guaranty Bank Tower.
Looking north on Central Avenue from Park Central Shopping Center. Guaranty Bank had merged with three other institutions to become United Bank.
This overhead shot shows the helter-skelter development of the Central Corridor. Midtown skyscrapers alongside the former residential neighborhoods and Osborn School.
Central and Indian School looking northwest, including the Carnation Dairy and Soda Fountain.
Rosenzweig Center under construction in 1960 at Central and Clarendon, 1960.
Another view of Rosenzweig Center from the northwest, looking southeast.
Park Central Shopping City, the first shopping mall in Phoenix, on the site of the old Central Dairy surrounded by a huge surface parking lot.
Just south of Indian School on Central was the first franchise McDonald's outside California and the first anywhere with the golden arches.
The Playboy Club on the top floor of the shorter Mayer towers at Earll Drive.
The two Mayer towers, with First Federal occupying the tall one. It featured an outside elevator.
The classic Helsing's coffee shop at the northwest corner of Osborn and Central was designed by John Sing Tang, the first Asian-American architect in Arizona.
Midtown today. The bottom photo shows the high-rises beyond the Willo Historic District.
RELATED: The Phoenix skyline through time.
———————————————————————————
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.
Nice column
I see my 59 Belair is still
parked at Woody's.
348 and 4 on the floor.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 19, 2021 at 11:54 PM
Classic, 8 mpg and a carbon footprint the size of TRex...but, hey, gas was a quarter.
Posted by: d | January 20, 2021 at 09:48 AM
Now that an appreciation for midcentury modern has developed, someone ought to build that second punchcard building. Sarmiento's plans are probably still somewhere.
We had the potential for a great museum row, but the Arizona Science Center elected to build in the old core, the Arizona Historical Society chose a museum site out in Tempe, and the Musical Instrument Museum one out on the urban fringe. Had those been put in proximity to the Phoenix Art Museum and the Central Library, that would have been a cultural focal point of some note.
Phoenix reliably never takes advantage, never identifies synergies...
Posted by: Joe Schallan | January 20, 2021 at 05:27 PM
Had a high geared rear end with a large four (4) barrel carb. Had good top speed.
At around 140 mph
Gus Stallings passed me south bound from Sun Set Point on the old Black Canyon Highway in his 57 Gull Wing Mercedes Coupe. I blew a rear tire about
Rock Springs.
Woody's El Nido had good food but the family owned La Casita on South Central was my favorite in the early 60's.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 20, 2021 at 06:58 PM
"someone ought to build that second punchcard building..."
That was my first thought when I saw that picture.
Cal, this 300SL was claimed to have been owned by Gus Stallings.
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/14018/lot/529/
Posted by: 100 Octane | January 20, 2021 at 08:35 PM
Worked in the life insurance business in the early 70s and had lunch often at Woodys,Carnation Dairy,and the Az Club.Had office in Az Bank building on 6th floor.Used to go to bar at the Financial Center but can’t remember name.Great memories.
Posted by: Mike Doughty | January 20, 2021 at 09:07 PM
I seem to recall it was White or Silver.
And that Gus drove with leather leather gloves. I recognized Gus and the car on the highway from my times on Central Avenue. Stallings i think had a Mecedes dealership about Central and Roosevelt near American Health Studios. I married the lady that was with me that day when Gus whipped by. I met her at The Curve resturant on Bkack Canyon Highway just north of Deer Valley Road. That same night I met biker Monk and his friend Larry Smith. Smith played the ape tyoe guy with no shirt in chains on the Wallace and Ladmo show.
Thanks for the article on the Gull Wing.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 20, 2021 at 09:13 PM
It was silver when Gus owned it.
I remember a lot of those buildings going up.
I worked at putting in the escalators at Park Central.
Posted by: Ramjet | January 21, 2021 at 07:34 AM
I ran the hose gun for Ora Hopper Plastering and construction when they poured a new rubber riof on the flat part of the Goldwater's store at Parkcentral.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 21, 2021 at 08:34 AM
Is that really your Bel Air, Cal? Nice ride! BTW, thanks for the email. Interesting read. Jon, great column as always. I love to read about the things I saw when I was growing up in the city in the 1980s. Even though we lived in the suburbs (56th Street and Thunderbird from 1980-1991, and then Scottsdale Road north of Dynamite from 1991 until I left for NAU in '94), I rode around with my dad as he visited job sites for the company he started. It was an interesting time.
Posted by: ChrisInDenver | January 21, 2021 at 12:19 PM
56th Street and Thunderbird back then must have been nice, I'm not too far from there.
Stallings owned two different 300SL's the red one was a color change so that was most likely it.
Perhaps someday Central will be high rise living from Downtown to Camelback.
These comments from past (and current) locals make me wish I was around back then.
Posted by: 100 Octane | January 21, 2021 at 12:29 PM
The great Sonoran desert was fabulous around 1000 AD.
Was pretty good in the 1950's. Loved that Malt shake you could turn upside down and it stayed in the metal container.
For the future More people.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arizona/articles/2021-01-15/zombie-subdivisions-coming-back-to-life-in-casa-grande
Good by Sajuaros.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 21, 2021 at 01:54 PM
Thanks for writing about this. As a kid, I watched mid-town sprout from the foot of Squaw Peak in the late 70s and early 80s. Even then, I thought it wasn't quite right. You touch on many different dynamics. Is there any detailed history on how it was allowed to happen for so long?
Posted by: Gary S. | January 21, 2021 at 02:51 PM
Ben Bethel really helped to change the Midtown area after he bought The Clarendon Hotel. Lots of history at the Clarendon.
Posted by: carolyn bethel | January 21, 2021 at 02:51 PM
Gary S
There was one person that tried to slow that mountain side growth.
Went to prison
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 21, 2021 at 03:09 PM
Cal said: "For the Future: More people."
See
https://www.theonion.com/new-study-finds-most-of-earth-s-landmass-will-be-phoeni-1819579315
Posted by: Joe Schallan | January 21, 2021 at 03:42 PM
My Mom worked in the accounting department at Del Webb's Townehouse, which at the time was one of (if not THE) tallest buildings in Phoenix. Ironically, the accounting department was in the basement. (And for you gearheads in here, she drove a '69 Impala Custom, 396 V8, red with a white vinyl roof 0 a classic!)
Posted by: Ed Coleman | January 21, 2021 at 03:44 PM
Ha! Joe.
Read that back sometime ago.
I also collect old Mad Magazines!!!
Just gave away my last Bansky and
"The Shadow" collectors books.
At 80 i have implemented that
Swedish Death Cleaning method.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 21, 2021 at 05:52 PM
Looks like the "can't we all just get along" plan worked less than 24 hours.
Cal, I researched the Swedish Death cleaning method. No where did I see how Apache Junction fit into the equation. Are you sure you didn't accidently look up a Swedish meatball recipe instead??
Posted by: AzRebel | January 21, 2021 at 09:10 PM
I'm a vegan.
I'll buy you the book.
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 21, 2021 at 09:53 PM
The original Del Webb tower at Rosenzweig Center had two duplicates, one in Albuquerque and the other in Fresno. They're still standing, too, looking even crappier than they did back in the '60s. The Phoenix tower was renovated and reskinned back in the late '80s, and looks infinitely better than the original.
My father had a minor role in Central Avenue history. He tore down for salvage rights the Heard mansion, Casa Blanca, where the Phoenix Tower co-op stands. I remember walking through the ruins - I was about 8 at the time - perplexed why a house was sitting on piers with little more than wood floors separating human feet from air space. About the same time, my father tore down the Central Drive-In to make way for Park Central. He salvaged a large photographic mural from it that later adorned his Sunnyslope clinic.
Across the street from the Central Towers south of Thomas was a restaurant called The Golden Drumstick. It had a huge neon sign, which would be the only reason to remember it. Further south on Encanto was a magnificent period mansion that had big two-story box built in front of it for offices. You could still see the semi-Gothic roof peeking above it. Today, Tapestry on Central occupies the space.
In the mid '80s, there was a proposal for a 55 story office building at Glenrosa & Central. The vacant parcel there once housed a trailer park and Karsh's Bakery. Today, the entire 20 acre parcel is mostly a vegetable garden tended by volunteers. The office building, needless to say, never got built, a victim of the 1986 tax reform law that made real-estate investments much less lucrative.
In the mid-aughts, there was a proposal for a high-rise condo project, again around 50 stories, just above the Grand Canal on Central. The "developer" opened up a sales office, which seemed quite busy. The financials of the project seemed rather dubious and it all crashed by 2007. Another proposal, immediately south of Macayo's involved two 30+ story condo towers. It too expired in the financial collapse of 2007-8. And, equally bizarre, there was another project on the SEC of Thomas & Central, which would have been 50+ stories. Again, the same story.
Today, there are thousands of apartments on Central in 5+1 buildings. Along with the massive increase in housing there's the redeveloped Park Central/Creighton medical school. Together with light rail, Central Avenue is very nearly vital. Good for Phoenix.
Posted by: soleri | January 22, 2021 at 10:01 PM
"once housed a trailer park..."
Hard to imagine. Here's The Golden Drumstick...
https://www.instagram.com/historyadventuring/p/BomRBqDnnx1/?hl=es
Thanks, soleri.
Posted by: 100 Octane | January 23, 2021 at 07:50 AM
Does any one recall the Zombie Drive up restaurant on Central east side south of Thomas?
Posted by: Cal Lash | January 23, 2021 at 12:11 PM
Cal, I don't remember the Zombie but one, which I never hear discussed, was Bo's Uptown on the NWC of Highland & Central. It, too, had a big neon sign which enchanted my juvenile eyes. Across the street was a well-regarded jazz club called the Amsterdam House, which hosted name acts like Anita O'Day.
Posted by: soleri | January 23, 2021 at 01:29 PM
I don't remember Zombie either. Bo's was the northern end of "Cruising Central"
Posted by: Ramjet | January 24, 2021 at 06:41 AM
Carolyn Bethel, the AZ Republic did a really good feature story a few years ago on Ben's transformation of the Clarendon. I think it used to be known as the Les Jardens, right? One thing the writer did very well was explain how Ben discovered the hidden access to the roof via the kitchen (I think), which was key to the rooftop terrace's development.
100 Octane, 56th and Thunderbird was a very nice area of town back in the early 1980s. There used to be a big Arabian horse ranch about a mile north of Thunderbird on 56th. When my parents bought our house in 1980, my twin brother and I immediately set out exploring the area. We were 6 years old and back then, parents let their little boys out of their sight as long as they stayed in the neighborhood. Anyway, the ranch was then called "Big Sky Ranch", and it even had the name inscribed on an arch over the entry gate. A few years later, some corporate interest bought it and it became known as Brubet Arabian Farm. We used to ride our bikes around the property and pet the horses. The horse shows were fun because we helped ourselves to the apple cider and doughnuts they served to the patrons.
There was a lot of open desert in the area back then -- perfect for young boys to build forts in. We also got into our fair share of trouble in the desert. I remember one time a friend of ours decided it would be fun to light a box of Blue Diamond matches and toss it into the scrub. The field went up like a fireplace and the brush unit from Phoenix Fire Station 31 responded a few minutes later.
Those were the days. We didn't need tablets or video games to occupy us. We used our imaginations and had fun doing so. I'm glad I grew up before tablets and smart phones and social media. And play dates.
Posted by: ChrisInDenver | January 25, 2021 at 02:59 PM
ChrisInDenver: I grew up in Phoenix ca. 1958-64, and parents were even more laissez-faire about the comings and goings of their kids than in your time. When school ended in early June, we were turned loose in the neighborhood and allowed free run, as long as we turned up again the Tuesday after Labor Day. (OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, but only slight. Also, no school before Labor Day, and the idea of commencing school in August would have been met with open rebellion.)
My neighborhood was near 24th Street and Camelback -- the edge of town in those days. We rode our bikes up 24th past the entrance to the Biltmore, at which point the road turned to gravel and terminated at the Arizona Canal. Much opportunity to mess around on the desert up there. There were still big cottonwoods along the canal -- SRP had yet to remove them.
Before turning us loose, our moms had various injunctions: Don't slosh through irrigation laterals in bare feet -- there is broken glass and dead cats in those; don't hang around the Arizona Canal -- too deep and dangerous and you may run into disreputable teenagers driving on the canal maintenance roads to pull guys water-skiing on the canal. Don't cut through people's yards. Don't rummage in trash cans in the alleys looking for "good stuff" that people threw away.
We did not obey most of these warnings.
We also had our own Phoenix-specific kid lore: Never drink the water running off evaporative cooler pads -- toxic and immediately lethal; be on the lookout for alligators in the canals and laterals -- they escaped in a monsoon flood from Jack Adams' Alligator Farm (tourist trap) in east Mesa.
Though we were free-range, the moms did have a tracking network. A mom might get a phone call such as "Hi, Mrs. Schallan. Your Joe and his pal Eddie just cut through my yard. They're fine."
One wonders what a generation or two of helicopter-parenting will do to initiative and self-reliance.
Christ I'm sounding like a fogey. Which is OK because I am a fogey.
BTW if no one has mentioned it yet -- there's nice coverage (24 pages) of mid-century Phoenix in the current issue (February) of Arizona Highways magazine (many Bob Markow photos). The cover features his shot of the Palms Theatre in the 1950s. I saw The Guns of Navarone there in 1961 and thought it was just the best thing.
Posted by: Joe Schallan | January 26, 2021 at 01:10 PM
I was one of those "disreputble teenagers".
It was more fun than eating dead bugs. You just had to know when to turn loose of the rope to avoid losing some skin to the bank
Posted by: Ramjet | January 26, 2021 at 02:05 PM
New comment on When Cold Civil War Turns Hot.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | January 26, 2021 at 02:20 PM
My father was the executive chef at the Cloud Club for several years in the late 60s/early 70s. It was quite the restaurant where celebrities who came to town dined. We have a number of autographs that he collected at that time like John Wayne, Zsa-Zsa Gabor and others. I also remember the Super Slide that was behind the McDonalds on Central and Indian School.
Posted by: FrankieY | May 08, 2021 at 07:22 PM
FrankieY - If I'm not mistaken, wasn't that slide called Clyde The Slyde?
Posted by: Paul in NW Phoenix | November 05, 2022 at 04:37 PM
Fun. I love the era.
Thanks 😊
Posted by: Amy | November 18, 2023 at 07:15 PM
In 1977/78 I worked at The United Bank on Central. It was a great place to work! I remember waiting on Linda Alverez, a tv anchor woman back in those years. I met wonderful people working there.
Posted by: Noel West | December 02, 2023 at 06:14 PM