Opened in 1952 by Dave and Belle Harman along the Tempe-Mesa Highway, the Red Barn served customers for only about twenty years. Among the many items on Harman's menu was "Kentucky Fried Chicken." The family had licensed the…

Dr. Lucius Charles Alston was born September 2, 1892 in Louisburg, North Carolina. After Dr. Alston graduated from the University of West Tennessee with a medical degree in 1918, overcoming rampant discrimination and the white-supremacist norms of…

The arrest and conviction of Ernesto Miranda, as well as the subsequent overturning of that conviction on appeal, introduced the nation to “Miranda Rights.” Buried in the City of Mesa Cemetery on Center and Brown. Ernesto Arturo Miranda was born…

Double Butte Cemetery is located in southwest Tempe on land that once belonged to Niels Peterson. It was located far from what was Tempe in 1888 due to health concerns. The cemetery is part of the "Rural" cemetery movement but has its…

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 the early 1960s, Arizona State University…

Hayden Butte, also known as Tempe Butte, is a 1,500-foot tall mound of rock and dirt covered by desert shrubs, cacti, and history. The Butte has been here for centuries, but human activity around the Butte began in the 1400s when the Hohokam…

In the late 1880s, when horses pulled carts and delivered mail in Tempe, Mill Avenue was a nascent hub of commercial activity. What became known as the "Andre Block" was among the first buildings constructed along Mill Avenue. According…

In 2003, Tempe Town Lake finally emerged on the bed of the Salt River after nearly 40 years of planning. In 1995, the beginning of the construction was marked by a huge ceremony near Tempe Beach Park, which was a focal-point for recreation in…

A little more than a hundred years ago, Tempe was all farmland.The Hayden Flour Mill that still stands at the north end of Mill Avenue reminds us of the agricultural roots of the city and the importance of water for human habitation of the region.…

The Salt River Valley has a long history of agricultural production. The ancient canal systems were hand built long before the age of electricity. Fast forward to 1920 and the round table of George H. Maxwell and Arizona state representative Fred…

Morphing from Victorian to Spanish Revival architecture, the Casa Loma Building is arguably the most changed building on Mill Avenue. An early hotel was constructed on the site in 1888 but was involved in a devastating fire in 1894. The building…

The thundering of horses' hooves is heard below Tempe Butte. A volunteer cavalry rolls into Mill Ave like something straight out of a Clint Eastwood Western. Although this may not have been a normal sight in Tempe, the Peterson building did see…

Although it may not look the part now, the Vienna Bakery building was built as a Victorian-style commercial store in 1893 by John S. Armstrong. Armstrong was postmaster in Tempe, president of the Farmers and Merchants Bank, and he introduced the…

With its Victorian-style architecture, this building is extremely reminiscent of a two-story saloon or boarding house straight out of an Old West novel. In reality, the building housed a drug store owned by Dr. J. A. Dines and Hugh Laird. They…

Across from the old Hayden Flour Mill sits a building that was once known as the Tempe Bakery. The Hackett House is a fired red brick structure that still has almost all of its original material. This building was completed in 1888 and is actually…