By Catherine Reagor | Arizona Republic
The buzz over the downtown Phoenix concert venue and bar The Van Buren is usually about the latest band or artist to play there. But the historic building that looked like “two old shoeboxes stuccoed over” five years ago is now getting national recognition for its architecture.
The 20,000-square-foot building at the corner of Van Buren Street and Fourth Avenue just made it onto the National Register of Historic Places.
“It was hard to see the building’s historic presence,” said Pat Cantelme, who bought it with his business partner Jim Kuykendall for $2.2 million in 2015. “We had just bought the Welnick building near it, and figured if we didn’t buy it, someone else would.”
Cantelme used the old shoebox description for what the Van Buren looked like then. It looks very different now.
