Written by Douglas Towne | PHOENIX magazine
A scandalous financing scheme at the Security Building went untold for 50 years after the Downtown building opened in 1928.
The Security Building was the toast of Phoenix when it opened Downtown at the southwest corner of Central Avenue and Van Buren Street in 1928. At the time, it was Arizona’s tallest building, an ornate structure financed by a 15-person syndicate headed by power broker Dwight B. Heard, publisher of the then-Arizona Republican (and later founder of the Heard Museum). His newspaper labeled the building an “architectural gem” and devoted pages to describe its amenities, from the gilded ground-floor marble lobby to the copper tower’s light, which was visible for 30 miles.
Photos courtesy AZ Collection ASU Libraries; Douglas C. Towne; the building in 1948The newspaper, however, neglected to mention the booze-fueled revelry that transpired inside the Security Building while under construction. A half-century would pass before it was publicly revealed that the funds Heard’s syndicate used to finish the project came from allowing a political operative to open an illicit casino and brothel in the building’s top floors for a fortnight. The audacious plan was reportedly approved by senior government officials. “The full story is one of the better skeletons in Arizona’s closet,” Arizona Republic columnist Paul Dean wrote in 1978.
