Part airport control tower, part rocket gantry, it was the tallest building in Phoenix for more than three decades.

It was also one of the first pistons in the tourism engine that still drives the Valley's economy.

The hotel Westward Ho, 618 N. Central Ave., nearly fell to the wrecking ball in 1980, but it was revived the following year as housing for low-income senior citizens. About 300 people live there now.

In its heyday, "the Ho" played host to the likes of John F. Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Groucho Marx, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Hara and the king of Nepal.

The place was strictly top flight, with a soaring lobby, gold-leaf accents and plush furnishings. The elite Concho Room was renowned for its Native American decor and flashy floor shows.

Built in 1928 and billed as the first hotel in the country to be air-conditioned, the luxurious Westward Ho stood high above every other downtown building until the 1960s.

Del Webb, who had arrived in Phoenix in 1928, got his start in the construction business hanging doors at the 15-story hotel. Soon after, he formed a company and went on to build the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and Sun City.

The Westward Ho was built during one of the city's boom periods, when Phoenix was emerging from sleepy Southwestern outpost to becoming the largest urban center between Texas and California.

The hotel, which was to cater primarily to traveling businessmen and winter visitors, was designed by Louis L. Dorr and built with community subscription stock sales. Its height surpassed the Luhrs Building, also downtown, to become the second-tallest reinforced- concrete building west of the Mississippi River.

It was also the first large building outside the original Phoenix town site, which was bounded on the north by Van Buren Street.

The Westward Ho has historical significance as part of the first big push to increase tourism. Its California-influenced design is Spanish Colonial Revival with Churrigueresque detailing.

In 1949, the roof was reinforced and a 268-foot tower erected to house KPHO, the first television station in Phoenix and one of the first in the Southwest.

Eleven years later, the hotel and its tower made the big screen in the panoramic opening scene of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Which leads us to Bill Yablonsky, a Westward Ho bellboy for 30 years. Whenever a celebrity checked out of the Ho, Yablonsky would pretend to take a coffee break, then go lie down in the celebrity's bed for a quick nap. That way, he could say he had slept in some of the most famous beds in the world.