Featured Stories
Mesa Drive Station
Religion and railroads played a prominent role in the settlement of Mesa. Mormons played a prominent role in settling multiple communities that grew together into Mesa, including the Lehi &…
Gammage Auditorium
In 1926, well known architect Frank Lloyd Wright was called to Phoenix to help with the building of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. This was the beginning of Wright’s long relationship with Arizona. In…
Mesa Arizona Temple Visitors' Center
The first visitors’ center for the Mesa Temple consisted of a small table and literature racks set up at the temple’s west entrance in the late 1940s. This set-up was soon found to be inadequate and a…
Recent Stories
The Stalwart Pioneer
The Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ceded much of what would become the American Southwest to the United States set in motion a long process of transformation. Many “aspiring landowners” knew of the fresh land and acts…
Alpha Drive Construction
Until 2012, the Alpha Drive fraternity community occupied this district of campus, with thirteen houses (ten of which were occupied) providing a unique gathering place for men affiliated with the university’s fraternity community. For better or for…
San Pablo
The area in Tempe between College Avenue and Veterans Way, on the northside of University Drive, is currently home to several Arizona State University (ASU) buildings such as the Fulton Center, Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, as well as several popular…
Alpha Drive Destroyed
Fraternities at Arizona State University are currently housed in the Greek Leadership Village with sororities, but they once lived along Alpha Drive near the stadium. In the early 1960s, when the homes on Alpha Drive were constructed, according to…
The Baghdad Opera House
It all began with two men: a master architect and a university president leading a small school toward becoming a major university. Gammage Auditorium resulted from the collaboration--becoming a symbol for ASU and Tempe, and emerging as…
Salt River Sanctuary
In the fall of 1966 Professor Bob McConnell at Arizona State University (ASU) taught an eight-week class that would alter the Salt River bed forever. Class AC 429 tasked its students with one monumental chore: turn the then dry and troublesome salt…
Salt River Stories
A project by Arizona State University & Mark TebeauSalt River Stories brings the history, cultures, and communities of the Valley of the Sun, the Phoenix-Scottsdale-Tempe metro area to your fingertips. Salt River Stories is created by students & faculty at Arizona State University in collaboration with the community. It is powered by Omeka + Curatescape, a humanities-centered web and mobile framework available for both Android and iOS devices. Read more About Us