Walking past the Gooding Building and the Adams Hotel in 1908, Phoenix, Arizona


Let's take a walk in Phoenix in 1908. It's been hot lately, but it's cooler this morning, so let's walk east down Adams towards Center Street.

That big building is the Adams Hotel, and it's quite a place. It was built by a local businessman, John C. Adams, and I guess he thought that building it on Adams Street would help people to find it. Not that they'd have any difficulty - it's the tallest building in town. What a place! I'll bet it costs a lot to stay there, and look at those electrical wires, these rooms must have every convenience! I'm sure some of them even have baths!

John C. Adams

That's the Gooding Building there on the left, although I usually just call it the Santa Fe building. I sure would like to take a ride on a train some day! I'll save my pennies. I wonder who owns that dogcart parked there? Someone with a lot of money, I'm sure! Beautiful horse.

The Gooding Building in 1908, Phoenix, Arizona

Not many people out and about right now, but it's early. I think I'll go over there and take a closer look at the hotel, maybe stand in the shade of the awnings. It's getting hot already.

Thank you for walking with me.

The Adams Hotel burned down in 1910, and another Adams Hotel was built on that spot, the northeast corner of Central and Adams, in 1911. It was demolished in 1973, and the hotel which is currently there, the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown, which was built in 1975, was the third Adams Hotel built on that spot.

 The Gooding Building, on the northwest corner of Central and Adams, is still there, but was "modernized" in the 1950s. Some of the original brick can still be seen from the back, along Central.
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