Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about Phoenix history and memorials. This month, Donna tells us about the lesser-known Monroe Street preserved home, the Steinegger Lodging House.
Two unique buildings from the late 19th century remain downtown within blocks of each other on East Monroe Street. One is the Rosson House built in 1895 and the other is the Steinegger Lodging House/Golden West Hotel built in 1889.
Newcomers to Phoenix created a “demand for affordable, temporary housing” as Phoenix rapidly developed in the late 1880s. The Steinegger Lodging House, one option meeting that demand, was the creation of Alexander Steinegger, an entrepreneurial immigrant who arrived in Phoenix c.1870.
Sometime around 1896, the Steinegger changed its name to the Alamo House. We don’t know why, but it could have been as a result of its “Mission-style parapet.” Frequent name changes for this property occurred and in 1908, it was called The Francis and offered furnished rooms.
More people came to Phoenix increasing the need for additional temporary housing after the turn of the century. Steinegger responded in mid-1911 by expanding the capacity of The Francis. The new “modern” portion had sixteen rooms; some were suites and some had private baths. It also had two public restrooms for the guests without facilities. The new portion even included a “summer dormitory on the roof.” With a new front came a new name: The St. Francis.
During the 1920s, the Southern Pacific changed its route to come through Phoenix. A new and larger train station was constructed; new hotels like the San Carlos, the Westward Ho, and the Arizona Biltmore were built to serve the growing tourism business. And the St. Francis Hotel changed its name again to the Golden West Hotel in late 1929.
The Golden West Hotel gained a new “neighbor” with the construction of the Professional Building in 1931. In 1934, the west side of the original building became the Golden West Buffet. In c. mid-1930s, the front façade of the Golden West Hotel was “modernized.” A new entrance for the buffet was installed. The front porch was removed, the front brick façade of the second floor was stuccoed, and black Carrera glass was applied around the lobby door and the central lobby window. Ceramic tile was added “to the façade of the bar portion of the front façade.”
Claude Jones transformed the café into a cocktail lounge in 1946 calling it the Jones Cocktail Lounge. Later it became Kissel’s Cocktail in 1963 and then Newman’s Lounge in 1976. Newman’s Lounge remained in business until October 2005.
Unfortunately, the Golden West Hotel gradually began to deteriorate as it could not compete with the surrounding larger hotels without major renovations. By the 1980s, The Golden West Hotel was a transient establishment. The former twenty-six rooms “had been divided into 109 sleeping areas.” It continued to operate as an SRO until 2004. Not long after that, the Steinegger descendants sold the building.
Sixteen years later, the oldest hotel building in Phoenix stood empty with a “false” facing which helped to protect the original brick building. But time ran out for its continued existence and it is no more.
