A new book by Phoenix resident Robert Melikian paints a picture of Phoenix’s urban landscape over the past decades (photo courtesy of the author).
North Central resident Robert Melikian announced the publication of “Forgotten Phoenix,” a hardcover photography book and memoir that takes readers on a pictorial journey through the city’s historical and contemporary downtown.
From old buildings, canals, trolleys and ghosts, the author recalls his teenaged downtown Phoenix midnight walks and adventures that were spurred on by a worn coffee shop matchbook he found. Melikian contrasts the downtown he experienced in the 1970s, when his family began a decades-long journey to revitalize and run an old hotel, to downtown’s vibrant early days in the 1920s.
The author says that, while the book gives appropriate due to well-known Phoenix landmarks like the Orpheum Theatre, Rosson House, San Carlos Hotel and Westward Ho, it also offers a wealth of lost hidden gems for readers to re-discover: the Fox Theatre, Madison Square Garden, the Steinegger Lodging House, the Luhrs Hotel, the first and second Adams Hotels, and numerous Mom and Pop lunch counters.
The 202-page “Forgotten Phoenix” is available at Changing Hands Bookstore Phoenix, the Phoenix Art Museum, the State Capitol Museum and online through Amazon.
