Donna Reiner, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about Phoenix history and memorials. She is a regular contributor to our newsletter. This month, Donna tells us about the Knickerbocker Apartments at 2nd Ave and Roosevelt.
A few weeks ago, a neighbor asked if I knew anything about a cute old apartment building on Second Avenue in the Roosevelt Historic District which she often passed while out walking. I quickly googled the site and realized that no, I didn’t know anything about the building. However, I told her to give me a week and I would see what I could find. And herein lies the story of The Knickerbocker Apartments and its two neighbors: The Westminster and the Buntman/Cathedral.
Surely the inventory report found in the Roosevelt Historic District National Register for Historic Places nomination would offer some clues. Initially it did not; but later as the pieces of the puzzle began to materialize, they were there, staring me in the face. Off to search the newspapers online, first using the address and then using the name of the building. What seemed like hours later and hundreds and hundreds of articles which contained the word “Knickerbocker,” the key piece to the puzzle arose to the surface.
An obit for Philip Buntman in 1943, credited him as the person responsible for the building of not only the Knickerbocker, but also the Westminster and the Cathedral (formerly the Buntman). Apparently he had also built another complex, the Maryland Terrace Apartments just west of the capitol on 18th Avenue and Washington. You would correctly assume that that one is no longer there. Today, sadly, it’s a surface parking lot.
In order to adequately answer my neighbor’s question though, I continued to pore through more newspaper articles and ancestry.com which gave me access to city directories.
Buntman was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1875, and came to the US before 1900. He resided in Chicago for a time where he met and married his wife Ida. They came to Phoenix shortly after 1910, with their daughter Gertrude who married Chester Goldberg in 1923.
Buntman quickly became involved in real estate development and sales, plus mining. He also saw the opportunity to offer a commodity, luxury apartments, to Phoenicians and visitors to Phoenix.
First, he built the two-story Buntman in 1913, where he and his family resided. Advertised as the “finest and most complete’ in Phoenix, the apartments had sleeping porches, built-ins, a gas log fireplace and many other accoutrements. A later remodel to the exterior, and the filling in of the porches in c. 1924, changed the look of the building.
The next, and largest of the three apartment complexes was the two-story Westminster on the corner of Second Avenue and Roosevelt built in 1914. Furnished and complete with telephone, maid, and janitor service, the Buntmans moved in. It too had sleeping porches that were later enclosed. The Maryland Terrace Apartments was also completed in 1914, but was only a one-story complex with six apartments.
Mr. Buntman was in the mood to build his last set of apartments in 1919, and that was the Knickerbocker. Another two-story luxury apartment complex, it boasted of being “strictly modern in every respect.” Furnished and providing maid service, the Knickerbocker was a testament to Buntman’s success.
All three of these apartment buildings on Second Avenue were home to many of Phoenix’s successful businessmen.
I contacted my neighbor and thanked her for the “hunt” and that I found enough to write an article.
