Sun Mercantile Building, Commercial landmark in downtown Phoenix, United States
The Sun Mercantile Building is a three-story warehouse in the Chicago style with brick walls and large industrial windows located on South 3rd Street. The structure displays typical features of early 20th-century commercial architecture with its functional design and sturdy construction.
The building was constructed in 1929 by architect E.W. Bacon and the firm Wells & Son as a modern commercial structure. It gained protection through listings on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and received local landmark status in 1987.
This building is a surviving trace of Phoenix's second Chinatown and shows how Asian-American merchants once operated in downtown. The location and structure still reveal the importance this place held for the community.
The building sits next to the Talking Stick Resort Arena in downtown Phoenix and is easy to locate. Since it holds protected status as a local landmark, you can view the exterior facade, but remember to respect any private or restricted areas around it.
Preservationists and the Asian-American community won a successful legal battle against a proposed high-rise hotel that would have threatened the structure. This effort shows how much the building matters to the city's cultural memory today.
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