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The Central Avenue Corridor is a significant stretch of north–south Central Avenue in
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
. Roughly bounded by
Camelback Road Many arterial roads in the Phoenix metropolitan area have the same name in multiple cities or towns. Some roads change names or route numbers across town borders, resulting in occasional confusion. For example, the road known as Apache Boulevard ...
to its north, and McDowell Road to its south, this is one of Phoenix's most vital and heavily trafficked stretches of roads. It is also one of the region's largest centers of employment, with nearly 60,000 people being employed within a three-mile (5 km) radius of this swath of Central Avenue. Major employers here include major banks and financial institutions, hi-tech companies, and several significant law firms and government agencies. This corridor bisects a larger area known as Midtown, Phoenix—the collection of neighborhoods north of downtown, and south of the North-Central and Sunnyslope areas. Block numbers or addresses for Central Avenue landmarks are indicated in parentheses where available.


Central Avenue Corridor today

Located halfway between the major
arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ro ...
s 7th Street and 7th Avenue, Central Avenue is the east–west dividing line for Phoenix as well as other
Maricopa County Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States. It contains about 6 ...
cities that do not have their own addressing system. Central Avenue crosses every economic stratum in Phoenix, rather abruptly in places. Downtown Phoenix land values are on par with other major cities. North of Midtown and Uptown Phoenix, the large, old homes in the tony North Central neighborhoods hark back to lower North Central Avenue's past. On the other side of the canal from North Central, at Central Avenue's dead-end, is the Sunnyslope District, founded in 1907.Phoenix – News – Sunnyslopetopia
/ref> South of downtown, approaching South Mountain, the South Central area contains some of the most blighted neighborhoods in the city. Central Avenue represents almost every architectural use and style found in Phoenix. Dilapidated and thriving strip centers, small old brick warehouses, industrial and commercial properties, single family homes and estates, and many of the city's high-rises all have Central Avenue addresses. On Central or in the immediate vicinity lie officially recognized and protected historic neighborhoods and a variety of cultural, performance, and sporting venues.


History


Pre–World War II

Central Avenue was originally named Center Street upon Phoenix's founding with the surrounding north–south roads named after Indian tribes. The original Churchill Addition of 1877, covering a small area north of Van Buren Street to what is presently
Roosevelt Street Roosevelt Street was a street located in the Two Bridges district of Lower Manhattan, which existed from the British colonial period up until the early 1950s, running from Pearl Street at Park Row (Chatham Street) southeast to South Street. ...
, was the first recorded
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...
showing Central Avenue with its present name. Despite this, there is evidence of it being called Center Street into the 1930s. A replat of Phoenix's original townsite in 1895 was the first to officially show numbered streets and avenues starting from the east and west sides of Central. Phoenix's first school was built on Center Street and Monroe in 1874 as a one-room
adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
. A new four-room schoolhouse replaced it in 1879 as the fourth
brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
building in the city, and the school was expanded again in 1893. By 1919, the school had deteriorated considerably and was condemned and sold. The luxurious
Hotel San Carlos The Hotel San Carlos branch in Phoenix, Arizona, also known as San Carlos Hotel, is both an operating hotel and tourist site. It has been associated with ghost sightings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1983 a ...
, the first downtown hotel to feature
air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
and
elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
s, opened on that spot in 1928 after a long delay. The
Phoenix Indian School The Phoenix Indian School, or Phoenix Indian High School in its later years, was a Bureau of Indian Affairs-operated school in Encanto Village, in the heart of Phoenix, Arizona. It served lower grades also from 1891 to 1935, and then served as a ...
was established in 1891 giving
Indian School Road Many arterial roads in the Phoenix metropolitan area have the same name in multiple cities or towns. Some roads change names or route numbers across town borders, resulting in occasional confusion. For example, the road known as Apache Boulevard ...
(4100 N) its namesake. Near North Mountain, architect William Robert Norton subdivided the first parts of Sunnyslope in 1911 amidst a "squatters' community of asthmatics and
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
patients" whose makeshift dwellings were illegal in the city proper. By 1917, a mile-long bridge was open over the immense Salt River ultimately connecting downtown with South Mountain, then known as Salt River Mountain. The Westward Ho was constructed in 1927 and would remain the city's tallest building until 1960.
Brophy College Preparatory Brophy College Preparatory is a Jesuit high school in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The school has an all-male enrollment of approximately 1,400 students. It is operated independently of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. The school has ...
(4701 N) opened for the first time in 1928 amidst agricultural fields. The
Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...
(2301 N) opened in 1929 with little fanfare but would grow to be a highly respected institution of Native American culture and history.


1950s

As Phoenix sprawled north, developers found plenty of available land on Central Avenue and began capitalizing on the cachet of the youthful city's signature boulevard. Local steakhouse legend Durant's (2611 N) opened in 1950 and has changed little other than that patrons today enter the restaurant through the back off the parking lot as celebrities and other socialites once did back then.
Park Central Mall Park Central Mall was the first shopping mall in Phoenix, Arizona. It is located in Encanto Village, on Central Avenue and Osborn Road. Today it exists as a mixed-use, business park primarily occupied by regional administrative offices for non ...
(3110 N) replaced a dairy farm in the middle part of the decade, signaling the beginning of
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
's long decline as retail stores and malls opened away from the city center. America's second
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...
restaurant was built near Indian School Road in 1953. It was the first McDonald's franchise, the first to feature the
Golden Arches The Golden Arches are the symbol of McDonald's, the global fast food restaurant chain. Originally, real arches were part of the restaurant design. They were incorporated into the chain's logo in 1962, which resembled a stylized restaurant, and i ...
, and served as a model for
Ray Kroc Raymond Albert Kroc (October 5, 1902 – January 14, 1984) was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turnin ...
's Illinois store. These early commercial developments foreshadowed the trend towards autocentrism on Central Avenue and indeed the rest of the city. The first major high-rise built on Central Avenue outside of downtown was the Phoenix Towers (2201 N), erected in 1957. The
Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of ...
moved to Central Avenue in 1959. Phoenix fully annexed Sunnyslope, at Central's north terminus, that year. Central Avenue to its southern terminus, South Mountain, where minorities had been historically redlined, was annexed a year later.


1960s

The 1960s brought a wave of high-rise development in Phoenix to Central Avenue that the city had hardly seen in its modern history. In 1960 the
Phoenix Corporate Center The Phoenix Corporate Tower (formerly known as First Federal Savings Building) is a 26-story high-rise office building in Phoenix, Arizona. It was built in 1965 and designed in the International Style. The tower was built two miles north of Down ...
opened, which at became the tallest building in Arizona. The first phase of the Rozenweig Center, known today as
Phoenix City Square Phoenix City Square, formerly Kent Plaza and the Rosenzweig Center, is a mixed use high rise complex covering 15 acres at 3800-4000 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix, Arizona. The project was developed by the Del Webb Corporation in 1962. The complex fea ...
, was completed in 1964. Architect Wenceslaus Sarmiento's largest project, the landmark
Phoenix Financial Center The Phoenix Financial Center consists of a high-rise office building and two adjacent rotunda buildings located along Central Avenue in the Midtown district of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. They were built in 1963 by the Financial Corporati ...
(3443 N, better known by locals as the "Punch-card Building" in recognition of its unique southeastern facade) was also first finished in 1964 for banker and developer David Murdoch. Eight floors were added four years later. In addition to a number of other office towers, most of Phoenix's residential high-rises, such as the Landmark on Central (4750 N, then known as Camelback Towers), Executive Towers (207 W. Clarendon) and the Regency On Central (ROC) (2323 N, then known as Regency Apartments), were built during this decade.


1970s

In 1971, Phoenix cemented the precedent of previous ad hoc zoning decisions with the adoption of the Central Phoenix Plan, which envisioned unlimited building heights along Central Avenue. The new plan, however, did not sustain long-term development of the Central Corridor. Only a few office towers were constructed along North Central during this decade and none approached the scope of projects constructed during the previous decade. Instead, downtown resurged in popularity during the 1970s, witnessing a flurry of construction activity not seen again until the urban real estate boom of the 2000s. In 1979, Phoenix adopted the Phoenix Concept 2000 plan which split the city into urban villages—each with its own village core where greater height and density is permitted, further shaping the free-market development culture. Phoenix officially turned from its roots as a city built around its two main drags to a city of many nodes later connected by
freeways A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
. The cluster of high-rises north of Thomas Road became part of the
Encanto ''Encanto'' is a 2021 American computer-animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The 60th film produced by the studio, it was directed by Jared Bus ...
village core.


1980s

Development on North Central Avenue began anew in the 1980s as part of that decade's
real estate boom A real-estate bubble or property bubble (or housing bubble for residential markets) is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real-estate markets, and typically follow a land boom. A land boom is the rapid increase ...
with a second wave of office towers. One Camelback was built in 1985 at the intersection of Central and one of Phoenix's other signature streets,
Camelback Road Many arterial roads in the Phoenix metropolitan area have the same name in multiple cities or towns. Some roads change names or route numbers across town borders, resulting in occasional confusion. For example, the road known as Apache Boulevard ...
. It is likely the last structure to be built that tall that far north, thus capping the build-out potential of the Central Avenue skyline almost five miles (8 km) from the origin downtown. The Phoenix Indian School was closed in 1988 and remained vacant for years. The city's third-tallest building at , Qwest Tower, opened in
Phoenix Plaza Phoenix Plaza is a mixed use office complex located in midtown Phoenix, Arizona. It was built between 1988 and 1990 at a cost of US$158 million. There is of office space plus 225 hotel rooms. Phoenix Plaza has three hi-rise office buildings, a lar ...
in 1989 on
Thomas Road Thomas Road is a major west–east road in the far southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, connecting Rockingham Road (part of Highway 1) in Kwinana's industrial area with Kwinana's urban area, before bridging Perth's agricultural fring ...
(2900 N).


1990s

Phoenix adopted the Arts District plan in 1992 in an attempt to interconnect lower Midtown's cultural amenities in a walkable area, but the private development that the plan anticipated never arrived, though
Burton Barr Central Library The Burton Barr Central Library is the central library of Phoenix, Arizona. It is the flagship location and administrative headquarters for the Phoenix Public Library. It was named in honor of Burton Barr, the Republican Majority Leader in the ...
(1221 N) opened in 1995. The savings-and-loan boom that birthed new towers for Midtown Phoenix plagued it throughout the economic doldrums of the 1990s. The city's fifth-tallest at , the Viad Tower (1850 N) opened in 1991 as the Dial Tower, isolated between the Downtown and Midtown skylines and the last new tower constructed in Midtown Phoenix.
Floorplan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to Scale (ratio), scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a struct ...
s of office towers built in previous decades had become functionally obsolete and contributed heavily toward Midtown's high vacancy rates. Despite the recession, the swank Biltmore area surrounding 24th Street and Camelback Road began to eclipse the Central Corridor as the
Phoenix metropolitan area The Phoenix Metropolitan Area – also the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, or Metro Phoenix (known by most locals simply as “the Valley”) – is the largest metropolitan area in the Southwestern United States, centered on the city ...
's premiere office destination with mid- and low-rise developments such as the
Camelback Esplanade Camelback may refer to: * riding atop a camel * Camelback, a variation of shotgun house with a second floor in the rear of the house. * Camelback (roller coaster element), a hump-shaped hill element found on roller coasters * CamelBackCapitalizatio ...
. The 1990s were unkind to Central Phoenix's oldest section, and a renewed interest in the central city developed, focused on new residences instead of offices.


2000s

After numerous failed initiatives, Phoenix voters approved the Transit 2000 Regional Transportation Plan which dedicates a percentage of funds raised through a 4/10-cent (four cents on ten dollars)
sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
to build the METRO Light Rail line. The initial phase, which opened for service in late December 2008, runs from Christown Spectrum Mall, to Camelback, down Central, and then down Washington Street en route to Tempe and
Mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by ...
. On Central Avenue, there are seven stops in Midtow

and Uptown Phoenix and three in downtown. The three-year construction process commenced in late 2005, with the final rail being laid in late April, 2008. The alignment of light rail down the center of Central permanently reshaped its physical layout and impacted the future of the surrounding neighborhoods. Light rail influenced growth as Phoenix adopted
transit oriented development In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between ...
zoning standards in 2003 within 1/2 mile of stops, rendering an autocentric Central Avenue a thing of the past. In Midtown, the market responded with two new mid-rise projects, the Artisan Lofts (1326 N), which opened in 2004 and the Tapestry on Central (2302 N), which opened in 2007. Tapestry's construction brought down the second-to-last estate home in the Central Avenue Corridor; the 1917 Ellis-Shackelford House (1242 N) still remains north of Margaret T. Hance Park. Capitalizing on its
retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...
mid-1960s styling, Camelback Towers became the Landmark on Central in 2004, continuing a tradition of the city's few
apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...
towers becoming ownership condominia later on. Also that year, Century Plaza (3225 N), originally built in 1974 as offices, had a complete exterior and interior
remodel Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving broken, damaged, or outdated structures. Renovations are typically done on either commercial or residential buildings. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, ...
as part of its conversion to condominiums. As reconstruction continued, two additional floors were started in 2007. Century plaza is now known as "One Lexington". Steele Indian School Park opened in November 2001 on the site of the old
Phoenix Indian School The Phoenix Indian School, or Phoenix Indian High School in its later years, was a Bureau of Indian Affairs-operated school in Encanto Village, in the heart of Phoenix, Arizona. It served lower grades also from 1891 to 1935, and then served as a ...
five years after an intricate three-way land exchange involving the Barron Collier Company and the
federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
. In Phoenix, Collier received a portion on the southwest corner of the siteWelcome – Maricopa County Recorder and Elections Website
/ref> for long-term investment in addition to the Downtown block on which the Collier Center was built.


Gallery

The north and south sides of the Central Avenue Corridor of Phoenix are lined with historical houses and buildings. These are the images of those properties. Some are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and some are listed in the Phoenix Historic Properties Register. There are also some historic properties which are listed in both registers.


See also

*
Phoenix Historic Property Register The Phoenix Historic Property Register is the official listing of the historic and prehistoric properties in the city of Phoenix, the capital and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona. History The register was established on 1986 with the ai ...
*
List of historic properties in Phoenix This is a list, which includes photographic galleries, of some of the remaining historic structures and monuments, of historic significance, in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. Included are photographs of properties identified by the African, Asia ...
*
Phoenix metropolitan area arterial roads Many arterial roads in the Phoenix metropolitan area have the same name in multiple cities or towns. Some roads change names or route numbers across town borders, resulting in occasional confusion. For example, the road known as Apache Boulevard ...
* Central City, Phoenix *
Encanto, Phoenix Encanto Village is one of the 15 Urban villages that make up the City of Phoenix, in Arizona. The village includes the city's midtown and uptown districts, as well as the popular Encanto neighborhood, its namesake. In 2010, Encanto had a population ...
*
Phoenix City Square Phoenix City Square, formerly Kent Plaza and the Rosenzweig Center, is a mixed use high rise complex covering 15 acres at 3800-4000 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix, Arizona. The project was developed by the Del Webb Corporation in 1962. The complex fea ...


References


Phoenix Central Neighborhood Association
{{Coord, 33.4926, -112.0723, type:landmark_region:US-AZ, display=title Transportation in Phoenix, Arizona Neighborhoods in Phoenix, Arizona