No one remembers the Phoenix building. It went down during the Gateway Civic Ruination Effort, around 1960.* In this early photo ts looks as if was built pre-stained for your convenience - why, it’ll be black with soot and exhaust soon enough, boys; might as well daub it now and save some time. There’s nothing particularly exciting about it, but it’s sturdy and decent and solid; the bottom floors were somewhat airy, compared to the bunkers they’d been building a few years before.

There’s a good reason for the name: the building was constructed on the foundation of another building, which burned down in a spectacular fire. (They’re always described that way, aren’t they? No one ever talks about a building consumed in an ordinary, standard-issue fire.) The previous building was the Tribune newspaper building, and it lasted only four years before it burned in 1889. This structure was completed in 1893.

Judging from the old photos, they duplicated the old structure, with some changes on the bottom and the top. Next: a slightly more modern shot.

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Larry Millet's "Lost Twin Cities" says 1961, but the Historical Society photos are dated 1960. Then again, the MHS says the Tribune building later became the Phoenix building. They're two different buildings. OR ARE THEY? Probably, yes.