The final stop on tour is the Laird and Dines Building at 501 S. Mill Avenue just south of 5th street. First constructed in 1893 for Dr. S. C. Heineman and R. Gill, the Laird and Dines Building came into possession of the Laird family and Dr. J. A. Dines in 1897. It initially featured Victorian architecture before switching to Spanish Colonial style in 1929 by the Laird family, before again being rehabilitated to its Victorian roots in 1994. The Laird and Dines Building operated as a drugstore under J.A. Dines as pharmacist, and later Hugh Laird after being trained under Dines. The building became a hot spot for some of Tempe’s most influential voices and leaders, with both Dines and Laird serving on the city council and as mayor at points in their lives. Many considered the Laird and Dines Building an unofficial city hall, with informal caucuses frequently meeting here to make city, state, and even national decisions for Arizona. 

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The Laird and Dines Building operated as a pharmacy under the Laird family until 1964 and famously houses the only historic basement on Mill Avenue. Many Tempe residents that grew up in the mid-20th century remember the drugstore fondly, especially for its soda fountain, a popular spot for teens and young adults in the 1940s and 1950s. In the years following its closure, the building saw a drastic shift in its tenants, ultimately seeing all three layers of the building become clubs and bars, which now serve the countless college students that come to Arizona State University each year. Currently housed in the second floor of the building is the club Varsity Tavern. Out of the main floor operates another club, Rodeo Ranch, fit with a mechanical bull. Lastly, the basement now holds Lowkey, a popular Tempe piano bar. Previous bars that existed within the building during the 2000s include The Library and a Hooters.

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The Laird and Dines building also offers a look into the darker side of Tempe’s history, one of persisting racism. Hugh Laird, longtime proprietor of the drugstore, also served as a member of the city council in Tempe for many years, as well as the city of Tempe’s mayor in not only the late 1920s, but again in 1958. Hugh Laird was also a prominent member of the Tempe Ku Klux Klan chapter. Like so many settler towns that hope to look back on a prosperous history, Tempe too must look back on one that includes racism towards African-Americans. Tempe was considered to be a sundown town, one where blacks were permitted to work but expected to leave in the evening, well into the 1960s. Today, Tempe’s mayor is Corey Woods, the city’s first African-American mayor, and just the second in Arizona history, which goes to show the lengths that Tempe has come as a community since the early 1900s.