…And we’re back! The Arizona Room at Burton Barr Central Library is now located on the second floor. Stop in today!
From the Arizona Room is a weekly column examining the historic, reuse and infill structures in Downtown Phoenix. The inspiration for this column stems from the ever-expanding resources in Burton Barr Central Library’s Arizona Room (located on the second floor). For further information on this and other historic structures in the area, visit the Arizona Room during normal library hours.
546 W. Adams St., Downtown
West Van Buren and the Lower Grand gateway area was once a hotbed of small hotels and motels, and a scattered few in various states of quality remain. Tucked just east of 7th Avenue on Adams Street, the New Windsor Hotel is a true Phoenix landmark — one of only three remaining pre-1900 hotels in the original townsite.
Built in 1893 by A.D. Walsh, it was known as the 6th Avenue Hotel until 1925, when it was renamed the Windsor Hotel. (As you can tell, the “New” prefix was added some years later, after an addition was completed.)
The three-story brick structure has a stucco façade on the south and west walls, allowing for interesting textures on its weathered walls. It has some notable design touches, particularly its modern pilasters and the niches in the parapets above its windows. The three-bay entry, a precursor to mixed-use ground-level spaces seen elsewhere in the city, was unique in its time, and the coved ceiling added some charm.
Additions were undertaken in 1935, chief among them the build-out of the middle section of the third floor. A front brick addition with casement windows mixed the Victorian architecture with a modern façade.
Yes, the New Windsor has been through its share of changes. Yet it stands today still architecturally significant, still vital and still cause for examination from passersby.
Source: Phoenix: Nineteenth Century Architecture. Survey by Woodward Architectural Group, June 1991 .
Is there a historic property in Downtown Phoenix you’d like to see in From the Arizona Room? Email me at si@downtownphoenixjournal.com with the address and a brief description.
