By Candace Reeb
This large, imposing school was built in 1914 on east Main Street. This school held the 4th-8th grade students until 1952 when Mesa Junior High was built. It then became an elementary school until 1973. At that time the Benjamin Franklin Elementary…

By Sierra Stewart
The 1898 Queen Anne-style theater, located at 300 West Washington Street in Downtown Phoenix, was originally constructed by architect S. E. Patton for nearly $35,000 (nearly $1 million today) and boasted conical towers, 20 bay windows,…

By Wendy Trakes
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which gave permission for the War Department to relocate Japanese and Japanese-Americans living in the western United States to concentration camps. In March 1942,…

By Tyler Cervenka
The Great Depression had a profound impact on the United States as well as greater Phoenix. In an effort to confront the economic and social costs of the Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt argued for a New Deal in which the federal…

By Troy Valdez
The Hohokam people lived in the Mesa area for nearly 1,500 years. Hohokam, (a Pima Indian word meaning ‘‘those who have disappeared’’), first appeared around 1 CE initially growing beans, squash, corn and cotton serving a very small population of…

By Rachel Storts
In 1899, after his father became ill, Carl Hayden dropped out of Stanford University, returning to Arizona to care for his family. Hayden soon became active in the Democratic Party and pursued a career in politics. Early in the new century, Hayden…

By Kaitlin Eckenrode
Charles Trumbull Hayden was born in 1825 in Hartford County, Connecticut. After moving from Connecticut to Missouri, he began working with a freighting business and traveled to Arizona frequently. In 1870, Charles Hayden and his business associates…

By Kade Krauss & Jacquelyn George
The Hayden House, or La Casa Vieja as it came to be known, is the longest standing Mexican-adobe structure in Arizona. It was built in 1873 near the South bend of the Salt River. Originally constructed by local Mexican and indigenous craftsmen for…

By Hunter Griffiths
Developed along the banks of the Salt River, the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa, Arizona, both both depended on the river and feared its seasonal flooding. Controlling the river emerged as a central challenge to economic development in the Salt…

By Austin Keating
Charles Trumbull Hayden came to the western half of the United States in search of economic gain and adventure like the many settlers before him. Shortly after the Gadsden Purchase in the 1850s, Charles Hayden opened a profitable general store in…

By Angel Castaneda
In the 19th century, women migrating to the west had opportunities not available to those in the East. These include the right to vote, equal pay for teachers, and more liberal divorce laws. Women confronted and supported the creation of the…

By Candace Reeb
Although the first school in Mesa started in 1879, few children went to school past the age of 12 or 13. Mesa didn’t start a high school class until 1899. They held the class in the upstairs of the Old North School. Mesa Union High School District…

By Candace Reeb
The year 1910 marked the beginning of racial segregation in the elementary schools in Mesa. During Mesa’s territorial years (1878-1910), all children were allowed to attend any school. In 1910 the Webster School was built for the Mexican American…

By Candace Reeb
The Irving School stands in the Town Center area of Mesa at 155 North Center Street. It was built in the same location that the old North School stood for 37 years. It was named after the American writer Washington Irving. Designed by architect…

By Candace Reeb
Women played an active role in the cultural development of Arizona communities including Mesa. The General Federation of Woman’s Clubs of Arizona was established in 1901. On March 9, 1917, 53 women signed a charter to organize the Women’s Club of…

By Suzanne Collett & Mark Tebeau
In the middle of the twentieth century, the developers of the Dunes sought to attract a new generation of travelers to the American west by locating it along Van Buren Avenue, which was arguably Phoenix's central artery. The Federal Highway system,…

By Sierra Stewart
In 2004, a defining piece of the Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1957 state capitol design rose in the Promenade shopping center in Scottsdale, Arizona. The shopping center desperately needed a focal piece, and Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Arnold Roy was happy…

By Sierra Stewart
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright saw great potential within the vast Sonoran Desert. The designer had just finished the designs of his renowned Usonian homes when he found himself deep within the McDowell Mountains of Arizona. In 1937, after ten years…

By Cody Veliz
The pyramid-shaped tomb of Arizona Governor George Wiley Paul Hunt stands at the peak of a great butte in the Salt River Valley. The tomb stands at a high point in Papago Park, a site selected by the Governor, and offers a grand view of the once…

By SRS Team & Zane Luke
Philanthropist and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie funded the building of almost half of the public libraries in the United States between 1883 and 1929. Included among the 1795 libraries by the"the patron saint of libraries" is the Phoenix…

By Troy Valdez
Chinese immigrants and their children played an important role in Phoenix's early growth, as suggested by the now-vacant grocery at the corner of Tonto Street and 4th Avenue. The proprietor of that store for more than 41 years, Ah Gim Yaun…

By Evan Enguidanos
The rise of Arizona and 59th Ave historic district run within the same train station but on different tracks. The rise and stumbles of both state and street can be better looked at through a timeline rather than a picture. The homes built within the…

By Mark Simonitis
Before the rise of the motor court and luxury resort, Phoenix tourism was defined by a different sort of refuge. Out in desert, the enterprising tourist could find himself staying at the guest ranch, a resort that catered to would-be adventures…

By Mark Simonitis
In 1937, the piece of land that would one day house Taliesin West was classified by the Arizona government as a wasteland, not fit for any kind of public development. However, where others saw only devastation, legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright…

By Mark Simonitis
Just nine years after the 1904 establishment of the town of Chandler, the mighty San Marcos hotel was constructed. This luxury hotel was an instant success, attracting a flock of wealthy guests every winter. Just across the street from the San…

By Mark Simonitis
In 1893, city planning took on a whole new dimension. At the World Columbian Exposition, architect Daniel Burnham advocated for extensive planning out of the new cities being built throughout the United States. In what he called the “City Beautiful”…

By Mark Simonitis
It all started when a couple was looking for something to drink. When he and his wife Alice established what is now known today as the Buckhorn Baths Motel in 1936, Ted Sliger was planning on using the building as a store, a gas station, and a home…

By Mark Simonitis
The origin of the city of Mesa relates directly to the expansion of Mormon settlement out of Utah and into the surrounding territories. In 1887, the first group of Mormon settlers arrived in the Salt River Valley, dispatched by Brigham Young. Over…

By Mark Simonitis
In 1887, Mormon leader Brigham Young sent out the Lehi Company to settle the Salt River Valley. A year later, another group of Mormon settlers arrived under the banner of the Mesa Company and camped approximately five miles away from the Lehi…