the original Arizona Club, which had its origins atop the Luhrs Building, located at 11 West Jefferson.
The Luhrs Building was built at a cost of $553,000 by local businessman George Luhrs and opened on April 1, 1924. The building’s four upper floors housed the facilities of the Arizona Club, including dining rooms, lounges, a library, and bedrooms for club members. The ground floors were leased as office space. When the Arizona Club moved out of the Luhrs Building in 1971, the upper floors were also converted to offices.
The Luhrs Building is faced with brown brick, with elaborate marble ornamentation on the uppermost two floors. The Luhrs Tower, adjacent to the Luhrs Building, was built five years later. A magnificent tribute to Art Deco architeture, located at First Avenue and Jefferson Street, it was considered a “skyscraper” in its day, with 11 floors and a height of 185 feet. The Crazies’ father [see photo] officed his insurance business in this building for several years.
Back to the Arizona Club.
“All the men of establishment in town went to the Arizona Club,” says Ann. “At that time, the Phoenix Country Club was considered more of a ‘family’ place, but the Arizona Club was where the men congregated.”
According to the Crazies, in its earliest days, the top floor of the Arizona Club housed a dining room. “It was a great big place with huge picture windows looking on the east and west – it was very elegant,” said Helen. “It had a big ‘round’ table that the men joined each other for lunch — sort of the ‘old guard table’. It was considered prestigious to sit at the table and I remember Daddy always sat there with lots of other old-timers,” Helen added.
“We celebrated more than a few family events at the Arizona Club,” said Ann. “We had great fun at my son’s 13th birthday party at the Club,” she said. “And we had a huge family reunion at the club the Thanksgiving before I was married,” said Helen.
Another floor of the original Arizona Club were the “men’s quarters” explains Helen. “It was a place for men to live and ONLY men were allowed there,” she says. “It was mostly bachelors or men who had been recently divorced. Plenty of movers and shakers lived there.”
“Yes, and lots of men-of-position would live there during the summer when their families moved to cooler locations to escape the heat,” says Ann.
“You have to remember in those days, most homes didn’t have refrigeration, or air-conditioning as you might call it, so many families essentially closed up their homes for the summer,” Helen said. “Women and children would leave for cooler climates in June and return when school started in September. The men would take up living at the men’s quarters at Arizona Club. It was much like a fraternity house – plenty of camaraderie, card games, and drinking,” she added.