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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Luhrs Building

building in Arizona

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ6699886
Source-derived summary

The Moxy Phoenix Downtown is a hotel located in the Luhrs Building, a historic ten-story office building located at 11 West Jefferson in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona. It was listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register in 1990, and on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024. It was built by local businessman George H. N. Luhrs, an original Phoenix City Council member from 1881–85, at a cost of US$553,000, 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 and Los Angeles. In 2009, the building was renovated with the help of a $500,000 historic preservation grant.

On May 30, 2014, Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, an award winning cocktail lounge, opened on the ground floor of the building.

On December 29, 2023, the Moxy Phoenix Downtown hotel opened in the converted and restored structure.

Architecture

The L-shaped Luhrs Building was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by the El Paso architectural firm of Trost & Trost. The building is faced with brown brick, with elaborate marble ornamentation on the uppermost two floors, and a heavy cornice at the top. Jay J. Garfield, a well known local builder was the contractor for the building.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Luhrs Building” is building in Arizona. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Luhrs, Building and building, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1990, 2024, 1881, 1924—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Luhrs, Building and building is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “building in Arizona” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6699886. Authority coordinates are 33.447, -112.074. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1990, 2024, 1881 and 1924.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Luhrs Building”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Luhrs Building primary sources, Luhrs Building archive and Luhrs research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Luhrs Building”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Luhrs Building” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.