GPS City GuidePhoenixLuhrs Building

Stop 19 of 39 · Phoenix audio walking tour

Luhrs Building

Downtown Phoenix · 1924 · Phoenix's Tallest Building Opens

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds on what happened at Luhrs Building and around Downtown Phoenix — the audio starts on its own when you walk into range.

At 11 West Jefferson, the ten-story Luhrs Building houses the Moxy Phoenix Downtown hotel today, and it fills your view. George H. N. Luhrs, an original Phoenix City Council member from 1881–85, built this L-shaped, Beaux‑Arts structure at a cost of $553,000 USD and opened it 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 and Los Angeles.

Over the years it has been stewarded and restored: it was listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register in 1990, renovated in 2009 with a $500,000 historic preservation grant, and the Moxy opened in the converted and restored structure on December 29, 2023. On the ground floor you'll find the Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, which opened here on May 30, 2014. Look closely at the craftsmanship: the El Paso firm Trost & Trost designed the facade in the Beaux‑Arts manner, faced in brown brick with elaborate marble ornamentation on the uppermost two floors and a heavy cornice crowning the top.

Notice the brown brick, the marble ornamentation on the upper floors, and the heavy cornice crowning the top.

Where it is

Coordinates
33.4469, -112.0741
Area
Downtown Phoenix
Era
1924 · Phoenix's Tallest Building Opens
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.