Tour Through Evans Churchill with Phoenix Community Alliance

If there’s a trend throughout Downtown Phoenix, it’s that old and new are literally side-by-side.  

And there’s no better place to witness that implicit, living connection to history than during Phoenix Community Alliance’s (PCA) monthly DTPHX Neighborhood Tour.  

On Friday, December 13, PCA begins a monthly neighborhood tour of the Evans Churchill Neighborhood. The tour is a Member benefit that examines the neighborhood’s ebb and flow. 

PCA’s Advocacy Director, Patrick McDaniel, curated and led the tour, which tracks the neighborhood's journey from the fringe of Downtown to a vibrant hub where residences, dining, shopping, and bioscience innovation coexist within one of the busiest areas of the state.  

If this interests you, below is a distillation of some noteworthy observations (with many other surprises left to learn) during the upcoming 90-minute tour.  

Hidden History in Plain Sight:  

The tour launches from the Ten-O-One Building, owned by True North Studio. The building houses many Members, including dialog, Moon Pie: Pizza & Patio, Rough Rider, Imagine General Contracting and Development and Valley Youth Theatre offices. 

Although the top-to-bottom appearance of the windows lends to an impression of a newer building, the figurative bones of the structure date back to 1960 when it was first built as the Coronet Hotel, designed by local architect Fred Guirey. When the hotel opened, an establishment called Mardi Gras Lounge operated from a corner of the lobby. According to McDaniel, the liquor license it operated under allowed for flexibility in food, drink, and entertainment options.  

Remnants of a former residential density are evident with the community resources it once provided, including a firehouse. In the near future, the entrepreneurs behind Gadzooks, Hugo’s, and The Green Woodpecker will revive the former Phoenix Fire Station No. 4 with a 4,730-square-foot restaurant concept that’s adjacent to the east side of Hance Park, a project that PCA advocated for and advised on the proposal process with the City of Phoenix.  

The First Neighborhoods of DTPHX:  

Evans Churchill is known for its plentiful supply of turn-of-the-century bungalows that have been reclaimed as eclectic commercial restaurant concepts and shops. McDaniel notes that the neighborhood was once "one of the most densely packed parts of Downtown.”  

As the tour moves back south toward Roosevelt Street, guests discover McDaniel’s favorite view, where past and present merge: Taco Chelo repurposing a former neighborhood market, multiple restaurants, a brewery concept opening soon, and the Phoenix Bioscience Core (PBC) less than a five-minute walk from these doors.  

Elsewhere, the tour brings light to the communities these bungalows once housed. The neighborhood east of Third and Portland streets once housed a vibrant community of Jewish neighbors who regularly congregated inside the Beth Hebrew Synagogue at 333 W. Portland Street, the first Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Phoenix. During World War II, Elias Loewy, one of the founders of the congregation, helped liberate more than 1,500 Jewish citizens from Nazi-occupied France.  

Community Impact by PCA Members:  

Throughout the tour, multiple residential projects by PCA Members highlight the evolving texture of what Evans Churchill Historic Neighborhood resembles in the immediate future:  

• A crane breaks up the mix of smaller-scale businesses where Rainbow Road’s six-story development is emerging a block east of the Ten-O-One Building. The project is Intersection Development’s first development in the community, and broke ground at the start of the year to build 36 boutique residences. A covered patio and gallery space in the lobby aim to attract the local arts community that it’s nested within.  

• Other upcoming developments, such as the Figueroa by True North Studio, strive to integrate the neighborhood's existing architectural makeup. Across the street from Artisan Village, one of the first residential in-fills Downtown, the project repurposes three existing bungalows as retail and dining experiences and adds four three-story residences behind the buildings.   

• Over time, other nearby electrical substations reduced the strain of demand on the APS electrical substation at Garfield and Second streets, which was built in the early 60s. In the next several years, APS plans to dramatically reimagine the site as a community resource, adding offices and art gallery space along the frontage. Similar to the community outreach for APS’ ‘Welcome to Roosevelt Row’ substation project, regular neighborhood meetings are held to build consensus on a plan.  

The DTPHX Neighborhood Tours reflect the ever-changing fabric of our Downtown communities. Implicitly, what was once an active construction project will be completed before long.   

When PCA first debuted the tour earlier in the spring, PCA Members JAG Development and 48 Development Company led a then-ongoing transformation of the historic 1929 Firestone building into Downtown’s first Goodwill store. By the time the tour returns in December, the store will have been open for six months.   

Similarly, save yourself a spot while we’re still offering tours of Evans Churchill! Space is limited to about a dozen people per tour.  

Walk the talk with us! Follow the link to RSVP. We hope to see you there.