10 hidden history spots in Mesa, Gilbert and Tempe
- A well-preserved Pueblo Revival style house sits in Papago Park
- Tempe%27s Southern Pacific Railroad Bridge is the oldest existing railroad crossing on the Salt River
- Travelers making a rocky journey on stagecoach stopped at a Queen Creek stage stop
- Get too rowdy in Gilbert and you might have been marched to the adobe pump house that still stands under the iconic water tower
These 10 history spots in the Southeast Valley may not have the appeal of the Apache Trail or the mystery of the Superstition Mountains. But, if you are in the area, they are worth a stop as their stories are woven into the fabric of our communities.
Park of the Canalsaka Hohokam-Mormon Irrigation Canal,Mesa
This 31-acre park on Horne Road, just south of McKellips Road, contains ancient canals and dwellings built by the Hohokams, who lived in the area from A.D. 1050 until they disappeared about 400 years later. Mormon pioneers, who arrived in the 1870s, used the canals to create an irrigation system that watered their crops.
The city owns the park that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Most people don't notice the dwellings, which have never been excavated. But they notice the extensive Brinton Desert Botanical Garden, named after its former owners. Vegetation from the four desert regions is on display including trees, shrubs and dozens of varieties of prickly pear cacti.
Location: 1710 N. Horne Road; call for details 480-827-4700.
Goodyear-Ocotillo CemeteryChandler
Hidden within Fulton Ranch in Ocotillo is a small, rather neglected cemetery that dates to 1916.
The Ocotillo area was the original Goodyear. Goodyear-Ocotillo Cemetery contains the remains of about 200 of the area's former residents, Mexican and Yaqui laborers and their families.
The cemetery was built by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, which owned and farmed the area from 1916 to 1943. A plaque at the entrance states that the surrounding land was the birthplace of commercial cotton in Arizona. During World War I, people from around the country and Mexico began new lives here centered on growing cotton.
Their labor laid the agricultural foundation of the southeast Valley.
Location: Northwest of Arizona Avenue and Chandler Heights Road in Fulton Ranch, west of the Fulton Elementary School.
The Tempe Bakery/Hackett HouseTempe
In 1888, Tempe businessman William Hilge built a bakery, a shop and an upstairs residence in two adjoining buildings. Over the years, Hilge added onto the buildings to serve the needs of an expanding business. According to the Tempe History Museum, the bakery was successful, and delivered fresh baked goods daily throughout Tempe and neighboring towns for 17 years.
The buildings were later purchased by the city and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The restored Tempe Bakery building is the oldest red brick commercial building in Tempe and a rare example of territorial period architecture in the metropolitan area today.
Today, the complex is called Hackett House and is home to the Tempe Sister Cities organization.
Location: 401-405 S. Maple at 95 W. Fourth St.
Eisendrath HouseTempe
Rose Eisendrath, the widow of a Chicago glove manufacturer, had an adobe Pueblo Revival mansion built in 1930 by architect Robert Evans.
The socialite's dream house on the hill in the desert, built on 40 acres, is located in a portion of Papago Park known as "Elfin Hills." The $45,000 house features a swimming pool, a parlor with a fireplace, dumbwaiter, servants' quarters, a patio and benches. Movie stars like Bette Davis were among her guests, according to Tempe History Museum.
After Eisendrath's death in 1936, the home went through a series of owners until the city purchased it for renovation in 2000.
The Eisendrath House is still being remodeled. Next year, it is slated to become the center for Tempe's water conservation efforts, with some public areas.
The home is the best-preserved Pueblo Revival style house in the Tempe area.
Location: 1400 N. College Ave. on the eastern edge of Papago Park.
Southern Pacific Railroad BridgeTempe
The Salt River Southern Pacific Bridge is significant not only because of its age and size, but because of its durability. The bridge was built in 1912 to replace three railroad bridges destroyed in floods.
The first railroad bridge, built by the Phoenix and Maricopa Railroad at this crossing in 1887, was washed away in 1891. The second bridge fell to a flood in 1905. That year, the newly organized Arizona Eastern Railroad built a bridge on a slightly different alignment.
The present bridge was built by the Arizona Eastern in 1912-1913 on the old 1905 piers, but with nine through truss spans. The structure has served the railroad for more than a century.
During the floods of 1980-1981, when most crossings of the Salt River were closed, a commuter train called "Hattie B" temporarily operated to take workers from the Southeast valley to Phoenix via the Salt River Southern Pacific Railroad Bridge.
The bridge's nine individual spans stretching 1,291 feet were an engineering feat for that era. It was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, but was never successfully added.
Today, the bridge is structurally sound and sturdy and is in daily use. It is the oldest existing railroad crossing of Salt River.
Location: You may view it at Tempe Beach Park, where the railroad bridge runs alongside the new light rail bridge.
Desert Wells Stage StopQueen Creek
Just north of Chandler Heights Road on the east side of Sossaman Road, a small spur stop was created for the Arizona Stage Company, founded in 1868. The stop provided water, shade and protection for those traveling from Florence via Olberg and on to Mesa.
It was described by the pioneers as a simple, one-room building about 10 square-feet, constructed of rock with a mud and thatched roof.There was a trough running along three of the sides to water the horses, a porch on the south side and a well close by to fill the trough, according to the San Tan Historical Society.
New research ties the site to the Andrada family, who were prominent ranchers in the area in the late 19th Century.
This site is significant to the community because it's one of only a few historic sites in the area being actively preserved.
Location: What's left of the old stage stop can be found three-quarters of a mile south of Ocotillo Road on the east side of Sossaman Road.
Pump house at base of Water TowerGilbert
The adobe pump house beneath Gilbert's iconic water tower did more than protect the tower's pumps. It served as the town's first jail, and drunks were its most common inhabitants. Rowdy people were marched off and locked inside. After the inmates were sober, usually the next morning, they were let out. This went on until around the 1950s. Former Gilbert Mayor Dale Hallock then a child, remembers going by and hearing the drunks moaning inside.
In 2009, the town completed a restoration project around the water tower, including the pump house. The cracked and crumbling former drunk tank now has a whitewashed face.
Location: Downtown Gilbert, Gilbert Road and Page Avenue.
The Women's ClubGilbert
A two-story building in downtown Gilbert was used from about 1918 to the 1950s by the Gilbert Women's Club for monthly meetings, activities and to organize service-oriented projects such as gardening and town beautification.
Gilbert Historical Museum archives suggest that prominent Gilbert families belonged to this group. In the mid-1940s, the club raised $52.50 for the town's first swimming pool (constructed on the site of Page Park, near the Gilbert Senior Center), which was handed over to Gilbert Jaycees to complete.
The building that hosted the club still stands, but curiously, it's now single-storied. It has recently housed a succession of small churches and is currently home to the East Calvary Christian Church.
Location: 20 E. Page Ave., behind Joe's Real BBQ, in Downtown Gilbert Heritage District.
The Old Lehi SchoolMesa
Originally built in 1914, the Lehi School is one of the oldest schoolhouses in the Valley. The building, a mixture of Neoclassical and Mission Revival styles of architecture, was expanded in 1939.
Located in the rural environment of the Lehi Area on a five-acre parcel given to the community in 1978 by settler Henry C. Rogers, the site retains much of its integrity of setting, despite encroaching development. The Lehi School was a center of education for years and symbolized the town's independence. The Lehi area, on the northern fringe of Mesa, was originally established as a separate settlement and predates the Mesa original town site that was settled in 1878.
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and housed the Mesa Historical Museum until recently.
Neon signsMesa
This stretch of history is neither hidden nor unknown. In fact, it's bright and bold and illuminates the night sky today, just as it did in its heyday. Neon signs, the kitschy advertising method of a bygone era, line Mesa's Main Street.
They were a great way to beckon travelers along the main drags of Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix.
Delightful pieces of neon Americana from the 1940s endure at Watson Flowers, Kiva Lodge Motel and Starlight Motel, which has a shapely neon lady that climbs to a diving platform every evening after sundown and executes one perfect plunge after another. The diving lady succumbed to the elements recently, but the community rescued her from oblivion.
Many others have not been that lucky. As Main Street develops, the motel, restaurant and other business signs in neon could be a thing of the past. See them while you can.