Sun Mercantile Building
building in Arizona, United States of America
The Sun Mercantile Building (or "Sun Merc") is a warehouse building in Phoenix, Arizona designed by E.W. Bacon and constructed by Wells & Son in 1929.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and has been a locally protected historic landmark since 1987.
History
Sun Merc is the last remaining building from Phoenix's "second Chinatown" period (c. 1890 – c. 1960). It is located directly next to the Talking Stick Resort Arena and is used by the Phoenix Suns.
Preservation threat
In the mid-2000s, plans were proposed to build a new $200 million luxury high-rise hotel and condominium tower, part of which would be atop the Sun Mercantile Building tearing off the roof and preserving only the base. Historic preservationists and the city's Asian-American community voiced their disapproval of the plans. However, the city council did not agree and the project was given the go ahead. A lawsuit was then filed in court and in the fall of 2007 a judge ruled that "the Phoenix City Council had improper talks with Sarver (the developer) before it decided the fate of the warehouse on the hotel site." and the project was effectively dead.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Sun Mercantile Building” is building in Arizona, United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mercantile, Building and building, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “building in Arizona, United States of America” 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.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7638407. Authority coordinates are 33.445, -112.070. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 1985, 1987 and 1890.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. 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.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sun Mercantile Building”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sun Mercantile Building primary sources, Sun Mercantile Building archive and Mercantile research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sun Mercantile Building”?
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- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sun Mercantile 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.