The Heard Building was built in 1919 by Dwight B. Heard, a well known Arizona newspaper entrepreneur, and was home to the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette for over 25 years, It is situated in the heart of Downtown Phoenix, near the intersection of Adams Street and Central Avenue (view location map). At the time it was built, at 7 stories tall, The Heard Building was revered as the first "skyscraper" in Arizona.
In the early 1900's, Phoenix was booming. As quoted from the City of Phoenix, Out of the Ashes: Growing into a Metropolis:
With the advent of statehood, Phoenix, as well as Arizona, had come of age. The casual, easy growth that characterized a farming community slowly came to a stop. Phoenix began to grow into a young metropolis. At the end of its first eight years under statehood, Phoenix was no longer a town - it was an important city of 29,053. Two thousand youngsters were attending Phoenix Union High School in 1920. They would throw each other into Jack Swilling's first canal, which ran through the campus and had become the "Town Ditch." A total of 1,080 buildings went up that year. Among them was Arizona's first skyscraper, the Heard Building.
Dwight B. Heard (1869-1929), from Chicago, came to Phoenix for his health. He apparently suffered from respiratory problems and decided to stay because of a fellow Chicagoan named John C. Adams, builder of the Adams Hotel in 1896. Heard and his father-in-law Adolphus Bartlett (head of the world's largest hardware company) formed the Bartlett-Heard Land and Cattle Company. He built a home-Casa Blanca-on North Central and was the center of Phoenix society. For almost 30 years, Heard was a dominate figure in land, agriculture and business in Phoenix. He lobbied with his friend Theodore Roosevelt for a dam and introduced Pima cotton into Arizona. He ran for but lost the 1924 Governor's race to George Hunt.
Dwight B. Heard financed the construction of this building to house his land, finance and publishing empire. The ARIZONA REPUBLIC newspaper originally occupied the bottom floor of the building. In 1910, a devastating fire consumed the Adams Hotel, Following that, Dwight Heard insisted that all of his new projects be constructed of concrete to decrease the likelihood of the type of catastrophic fire damage that destroyed his friend's hotel. So, Heard built it out of concrete composed of sands from Catalina,
The Heard Building has been home to many important figures and companies in Phoenix.
- 1920's-1940"s: Arizona Republic, KTAR (Radio Station)
- 1950's: KTAR, Snell & Wilmer (Law Firm)
- 1970's: Greater Arizona Savings
In addition, The Heard Building made its film debut with a cameo in the original Alfred Hitchcock "Psycho". Most people mistake the opening shot location for the Westward Ho Hotel because of the recognizable radio towers on the roof. However, those towers were atop The Heard Building at the time of Psycho's production.
Still standing proudly today, The Heard Building tells the story of the growth and prosperity of Phoenix, and the impact a few entrepreneurial individuals, like Dwight B. Heard, had on its success as a major metropolis. In the 1980's & 1990's, The Heard Building began to seemingly disappear among the growing skyscrapers that surrounded it. As years went by, parts of the building were covered, or otherwise altered, to conceal modern amenities and wiring. Ceilings were dropped, and windows were slowly hidden away. At the time, this was progress. The future of The Heard Building may be taking a backwards twist. In 2000, a well known Phoenix developer, Chris Rudel (of The Rudel Company, Inc.), following in Heard's entrepreneurial spirit, purchased the building and began to bring it back to life.
Parts of the building are being rediscovered and refinished to showcase the original design elements and vision. The building's "bones" are solid, and more the point, beautiful. Hidden by generic dropped ceilings, an additional 5 feet of vertical clearance as well as windows previously covered by boards or paint, were discovered. Rudel immediately seized the opportunity to enlist some of Phoenix's best architects and contractors to develop a plan to restore the building to its previous glory, while actually modernizing it by upgrading its efficiency. Forgotten elements of the building are discovered every day, and the future looks promising for this historic and integral edifice.
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Dwight B. Heard, The Heard Building -
The Heard Building under construction, circa 1919 -
The Heard Building, circa 1920's -
The Heard Building, circa 1930's -
The Heard Building, circa 1940's -
The Heard Building, circa 2006
