At the conclusion of World War II, a couple by the names of Joe and Alice Woods would purchase the building from the Chandler Improvement Company and convert it into the Parkway Theater; one out of three theaters that the couple would own in their…

The first president of the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Board, William Hartranft, modeled the city's Encanto Park after San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. In so doing, Hartranft channeled the vision of Frederick Law Olmsted, an American landscape…

During the week of December 4, 1905, heavy rainstorms forced state officials to reschedule Arizona’s first territorial fair. Weeks later, on Christmas Day, the fair opened its doors. Governor Joseph H. Kibbey made a few opening remarks to more than…

In the early morning hours of April 1, 1934, The Arizona Republic reported that 6,000 Arizonans gathered for a sunrise Eastertide service at the Papago Park Amphitheater. With seating for only about 5,000 people, an overflow crowd sat on the…

William Hartranft founded Encanto Park in 1934, seeking to create a park for Phoenix that was like San Francisco's Golden Gate Park or San Diego's Balboa Park. William Hartranft emulated parks inspired by Frederick Law Olmsted, the founder of…

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…

The Chicago Cubs have called the Arizona home during the spring months for over 60 years. Each February, Cubs players make the trek to the Valley of the Sun to prepare for the grueling season ahead of them. However, the Cub’s ties to the Valley go…

The Mesa Temple is decorated on its corners with frieze panels that depict the Latter-Day Saint beliefs about the gathering of Israel from the four corners of the earth, as prophesied by Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible. A.B. Wright…

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 Vance Auditorium was built in 1904 by John Thomas Vance. People all around Mesa came to the dances. At the time of its construction, it was the biggest auditorium in the southwest. In 1919, Vance sold the building to the Maricopa Stake of The…

Finished in 1930, the U.S. Post Office in downtown Phoenix was built by private architects who designed typical federal buildings from the 1920s and 1930s. The art that is found inside the building is quite unique. The murals reflect the economic…

The Orpheum Theatre opened in 1927 when the movie industry took the nation by storm. It was built as a large, expensive, and ornate theater to showcase productions and provide high culture to the valley. The theater was built to house a variety…

Fish hatcheries are the last thing people probably think about when they think of Arizona. During the Great Depression, however, raising fish meant jobs.The Hunt Bass Hatchery was initially commissioned in May of 1932 by Governor George W.P. Hunt as…

When he was just 25 years old, Dwight “Red” Harkins founded Harkins Theatres and built the College Theatre in 1940 at the tail-end of the Great Depression. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Harkins was bound for Hollywood, with dreams of becoming…

Among President Franklin Roosevelt's many "Alphabet Soup" New Deal programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was perhaps the most successful in reducing unemployment among America's youth. The highly regimented program…

Breadlines, street corner apple vendors, and families traveling cross-country in jalopies looking for employment are phenomena unknown to most alive today. As those who lived through the Great Depression continue to fall by the wayside, memories of…

Scottsdale's first Catholic church had somewhat of a miraculous delivery. Initially conceived in the late 1920s, the construction plans for the old adobe mission church hit a major roadblock in 1929 when the stock market crashed, and the Great…

The graceful, even beautiful, lines of Scottsdale Grammar School #2 convey a sense of prosperity. Stability seems to be written right into the school’s symmetrical concrete façade. It is a testimony to the optimism of 1928, the year it was built—a…