George H.N. Luhrs
Arizona, the Youngest State, 1913, page 34

George H.N. Luhrs, proprietor of the Commercial Hotel in Phoenix has been an interesting 
witness of the growth and development of Arizona for more than four decades.  He first
visited in 1874 and in 1878 returned to Phoenix which was then a town of small 
proportions, typical of the southwest with its adobe buildings and other evidences 
of pioneer settlement. Since 1886 he has been prominently known as a hotel proprietor
at the capital and his businesshas grown with the development and improvement of the city.

Mr. Luhrs is numbered among the worthy citizens that Germany has furnished to this state 
and since his arrival in the new world he has never had occasion to regret his 
determination to come to America,for he has found the opportunities which he sought 
and in their utilization has made steady progress towardthe goal of prosperity. 
 
The year 1867 witnessed his arrival in the new work, at which time he located in 
California.  He was a wagonmaker and for a time followed his trade.  In 1869 he 
arrived in Arizona settling at Wickenburg, where he was employed by 
a stage company and in 1878 he took up residence permanently in Phoenix.  In 1886 
he built the Commercial Hotel, a two story building, part brick and part adobe 
and opened it for business.  In 1887 an addition was built, thus 
increasing the size of the building. which was originally forty by sixty feet.  

In 1910 another addition was built and later in 1911, additions were made, giving 
the property its present dimensions, three stories and a quarter of 
a block.  The hotel contains more than one hundred rooms, and the arrangement is 
such as to provide exceptionally light and commodious rooms, whose well kept 
condition has always been a feature of the Commercial Hotel.  Mr. Luhrs 
has developed this hotel into one of the best known in the state.

In 1883 Mr. Luhrs returned to Germany and the following year was married to Miss 
Catherine Margaret Dodenhoff.  
They have become the parents of four children:Ella, Louise, Emma and George Jr.