Now the murals are gone. The building that housed them is gone. And in their place is the skeleton of a new housing development, a concrete-and-steel symbol of the battle between the local arts community trying to preserve its culture, and out-of-state developers trying to pursue commercial progress.
Local artists rallied to stop the razing of the building where a then-unknown DeGrazia painted the murals in 1950, reportedly to pay off a bar tab. They started an online petition that garnered more than 1,600 signatures and attended meetings with Phoenix City Council. But the building was razed in March, and none of the murals were salvaged. It’s devastated many in the Downtown arts community, who see murals as part of Phoenix’s identity. To them, the destruction of murals isn’t just symbolic; it’s systemic, the start of the stripping away of the expressive “struggling artist” culture that made Roosevelt Row authentic.
“Murals tell a story. People really send a message through their art, whether it be a story or an emotion,” Phoenix artist Chele Hill says. “There’s no reflection of anything when you look at these new buildings.”
In December, Phoenix City Council gave approval to Colorado-based Baron Properties to demolish the building at 222 E. Roosevelt to make way for an apartment development called iLuminate. Many people considered the Roosevelt building culturally significant. It housed various bars, an infamous gay club called the 307 Lounge (where Danny Bonaduce picked up the transvestite hooker he was arrested for assaulting in 1991), and in 2007, the campaign office of former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. Most recently, it was home to greenHAUS gallery + boutique.
Through all its incarnations, one thing remained unchanged inside the building – the DeGrazia murals. The smaller of the two murals depicted a ballet dancer inside a champagne glass and the larger one, spanning 47 feet, portrayed the history of liquor.
Attempts were made to save the building. Robert Melikian, whose family owns the Hotel San Carlos, proposed moving the structure, at an estimated cost of $64,000, to his property nearby at the corner of 10th and Pierce streets; he says Baron Properties didn’t respond to his proposal, which included them footing the relocation bill. Petitioners futilely pleaded with Baron Properties to preserve the structure by somehow incorporating it into the new building’s design.
After negotiations by DeGrazia Foundation executive director Lance Laber to relocate the murals, the smaller piece was cut out of the building and destined for the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun in Tucson. But the 65-year-old drywall crumbled into dust the moment it was laid on the ground. Cost estimates for moving the larger mural hit as high as $250,000, and it couldn’t be saved either. In the end, the building came down, sans design plans to accommodate the murals, burying DeGrazia’s visual history of liquor in rubble.
The DeGrazia pieces weren’t the only artistic casualties of the demolition. Another well-known mural, “Three Birds” by local artist Lauren Lee, adorned the building’s east-facing external wall. Commissioned in 2012 by greenHAUS owners Cole and Dayna Reed, it became ubiquitous with Roosevelt Row’s First Friday artwalks. Lee says Baron has commissioned her to paint a new mural on the iLuminate building. Baron wouldn’t confirm that, telling media in early March it was still “a handshake deal.”
Members of Phoenix City Council say the development will improve the area. Councilman Michael Nowakowski says, “I believe it will blend into the unique fabric of this neighborhood and bring us closer to what the sixth-largest city in the nation should look like.”
But with new builds Downtown, artists worry the real estate for murals will decrease. “When you strip someone’s attempt to express themselves in a safe, constructive and artistic manner,” Hill says, “you’re taking away their freedom of expression.”
MURAL MAP – The DeGrazia murals may be gone, but these pieces of public art remain.
Valley Youth Theatre
525 N. First St.
“The Water Writes” mural by various artists
Angels Trumpet Ale House
810 N. Second St.
“Angels Trumpet Ale House” mural by Lalo Cota and Thomas “Breeze” Marcus
Golden Rule Tattoo
120 E. Roosevelt St.
Unnamed by Lalo Cota
Wall on Seventh Ave. and Roosevelt St./Portland St.
“The Duchess” by Chele Hill
Westminster Apartments
Second Ave. and Roosevelt St.
“Westminster” mural by Andy Brown
Pravus Gallery
501 E. Roosevelt St.
Unnamed collaboration by El Mac and Kofie
