Woolworths, Phoenix, Arizona - from pre-war art deco, to post-war modernism and finally...the wrecking ball

 

F. W. Woolworth Co. Department store opened in Phoenix, Arizona during the 1930s, in a gorgeous art deco building on Washington and 1st Street. Back then Phoenix and the adjacent Salt River Valley, "Valley of the Sun" were home for only 200,000 people.

After the war (early 1950s), Woolworth's purchased the adjacent corner building and united the two structures into a new modernist looking store. Needless to say that today the entire block was demolished and replaced by skyscrapers.