History Adventuring

One of my favorite places in the world is just a few blocks from me - the Sahuaro Ranch (yes, it's misspelled that way), which is just north of Glendale Community College, between Peoria and Olive and 59th and 63rd Avenues. I've been there more times than I can count, and I'm always up for another visit. It's one of the "hidden gems" of the Phoenix area. I love to takes pictures of the historic buildings, the rose garden, the beautiful palm trees. But if you've seen the signs saying that you aren't allowed to take photos, and panicked, you may have misunderstood. I'll see if I can put your mind at ease, and not worry about taking photos there, and not worry about me taking photos. They mean commercial photography. And it's pretty much true of doing commercial photography anywhere outside of private property, or a studio. Back in the '90s, when I worked as a Graphic Designer for the Marketing Department of Bank One, I had the chance to ...

Legend City was an amusement park that was between Phoenix and Tempe, north of the Salt River, near where the Phoenix Municipal Stadium is, which operated from 1963 to 1983. And, no, I never got to see it. But this blog is for time-traveling, and I want to go there now. I want to see it, I want to experience it, and mostly I want to feel it. And if you went there, hopefully you will help me to understand. Let's go! We're kids in the 1960s, all I can say is that they can't seem to make up their mind about what it is, but I love it. There are old west shootouts, and dinosaurs. I guess in the future some of it would be very "politically incorrect", but no one seems to mind now. Their slogan is Guns, Girls, and Games, and I have no idea what that means. I'm pretty sure it's an old west theme. Like the westerns that I see on TV, like Gunsmoke, and the Rifleman. Where people get shot and just go "aaauuggh, ya got me!" and fall down. And the saloon...

Five Points is the intersection of 7th Avenue, Van Buren, and Grand in Phoenix. The reason that it's called Five Points, is that you can go in five different directions from that intersection - 1) west on Van Buren, 2) east on Van Buren, 3) south on 7th Avenue, 4) north on 7th Avenue and 5) northwest on Grand. Let's time-travel back to Phoenix in 1913. This is waaaayy out on the edge of town. And there's no trolley to that destination, so it's kinda difficult to get to. You can walk there, or you can take one of those new fangled "automobiles", or you can ride a horse. But since there's no trolley line to there, it's not as convenient a place to shop as most other shopping areas in Phoenix, so it's a place for bargains. Kind of like Outlet Stores are nowadays. In the 1913 ad at the top of this post, it looks like walking there was being encouraged. And they're showing why you should be able to get bargains at Five Points stores. Even tho...

Every once in a while I hear someone say, in a joking way, that Phoenix is a suburb of Los Angeles. And I agree. Because while the distance is great, the connection is very tight. And if you go back further in time, the connection is with San Francisco. And like a child yearning for independence, there has always been a little bit of a resentful attitude towards these California cities. Los Angeles when Phoenix was young. In this blog my main focus in Phoenix history, but you can't study Phoenix history without including California, especially Los Angeles and San Francisco. And that's because Phoenix began with reliance on San Francisco, in the 1800s, and continued with Los Angeles in the 20th Century. And while Phoenix has become more self-reliant in the 21st Century, the influences remain. As long as I can remember, people in Phoenix have said that they "don't want to be like LA". And that meant freeways, sprawling suburbia, smog, that sort of thing....

If you've seen the Calvary Community Church sign, which is just west of the I-17 freeway between Thunderbird and Cactus Roads in Phoenix, you probably weren't surprised to see a star. After all, it's a church, and a star is appropriate. But the star was there long before the church, in fact it was the original sign for Westown. Time-travel with me back to the 1960s. And we're gonna drive waaaaayyyyyy north of Phoenix on the Black Canyon Highway. There are a few scattered houses, and businesses out there, but not much. Heck, even Metrocenter wouldn't be there until 1972. We're going to Westown. The original Westown sign in the 1960s I have no idea why it's out here. But you can see the Westown sign, with the star, for miles and miles. And it isn't just a mall, it's kind of a little community of businesses. It's a shopping city. Of course, there's a Valley Bank, and look over there, a nice big A.J. Bayless! A.J. Bayless at Westo...

I've only lived three places in my life, Minnesota (where I grew up), California (where I lived in the '80s) and Arizona, where I am now, and where I always hope to be. So when I heard that it was unusual to add the word "the" to a freeway number, I was surprised. Then I put it to the test - sure enough, I found myself saying "take the 10", "take the 101" (both of which are freeways in Los Angeles and Phoenix) but when I thought of where I learned to drive, in Minneapolis, I found myself saying "take 35W". This train of thought started for me just a couple of months ago, when I read an article that insisted that the use of "the" was strictly a Southern California thing. So I asked around here in Arizona. Everyone, and I mean everyone, I talked to includes the word "the". It seemed like a silly question to people I asked, but my friends are used to me asking silly questions. So, apparently this is a Southern Cali...

It's 1931 and everyone is talking about the new theater being built on Washington and 1st Street, called the Fox. Let's go take a look. OK, no one has seen us sneak up onto this roof, let's take a look. Wow, you sure get a good view of South Mountain from up here! The old-timers are complaining because this is where the city park used to be, and the old City Hall, but but this is Phoenix, and it's all about progress. And this is amazing! And even more so since the big depression hit a couple of years ago. I'm surprised it's being built! I hope that I can scrape up enough money to go see some shows. It sure is fancy! I wonder what it will look like on the inside? Phoenix has a lot of theaters, but this has got to be the biggest and the best. This will really be a point of pride for the city, I hope that it will always be here, and I hope to be going to movies with my great-great grandchildren! What? You think that maybe they're gonna tear it down i...

If you've lived in Phoenix for a while, I think you'd agree that it changes a lot. Old buildings are torn down, new buildings spring up. For the past few years I've noticed that the street corners that I used to know so well all seem to look the same, as they're either a Walgreens or a CVS. And people who have lived here longer than me have seen it over and over again. At the risk of sounding poetic, Phoenix really is like the legendary Phoenix Bird, which was reborn from its ashes over and over again. So, it fascinates me to how many times Phoenix has been reinvented. I like seeing the things that remain the same, like the mountains and the streets, but the buildings tend to disappear. And what fascinates me the most is trying to visualize what happened after 1887, when the railroad finally arrived in Phoenix. Time-travel with me to the 1870s. Phoenix was platted in 1870, and the town started growing right away. I guess it had the things that people wanted, like...

If you like looking at old buildings in the Phoenix area, you've seen the Peoria Presbyterian Church. It's over by the Peoria History Museum, on 83rd Avenue west of Grand Avenue. I visited it a couple of days ago and I immediately went into my "time-traveling" mode. It was 1892 and the church had just been built. Well, the building at least. The Presbyterian Church is the congregation of people who had moved from Peoria, Illinois, to Arizona. I'm not trying to be obtuse here, but a Church is wherever two or more are gathered in His Name. And in 1892 this area must have looked (please excuse the expression, but it's the best description) as God-forsaken as anywhere in the world. Look around you. Miles and miles and miles of desert. Dust, dirt, sand, and tumbleweeds. To the west you can see the White Tank Mountains, which the Apaches still protect. To the south are the Estrella Mountains, where the Pimas live. To the east you can see the Phoenix Mountains...

If you've ever spent much time in the Phoenix, Arizona area, you know that there are a lot of old people there. I see a plenty of of them here in the west valley, as I'm only a few miles from Sun City. And, if history is any indication, there will be a LOT more old people in the Phoenix area in the future. And although Sun City, which was established in 1961, is the first thing most of us think about when we think of old people in Phoenix, it goes way back before that. Support Arizona history by becoming a patron on Patreon Click here to become a Patron! History Adventuring blog posts are shared there daily, also there's "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, and super high-resolution photos of historic Phoenix, Arizona Time-travel with me to the days when tuberculosis was fairly common in large cities. You don't hear much about tuberculosis nowadays, but it's still around (TB has not been eradicated). In the 1800s most people would have c...

If you're like me, you want to know everything about Phoenix history. And that means reading original documents, looking at old photos, listening to people talk about Phoenix. And if that's your goal, well then it's gonna take some time. I've been working on it for many years now and plan on working on it as long as I take the strength to. Lucky, I drink a lot of coffee! Since I've been a teacher, I know that giving a short answer can be helpful, and it can also be a disservice. On this blog, I try to condense what I've been finding to spark curiosity. Yeah, teachers do that - they tell you a little bit about something, then they hand you a book. If a short answer inspires you to learn more, that's great. If a short answer is all you get, then it's like sprinkling drops of water on the face of someone dying of thirst - it's not enough for people who truly thirst. One of the most common things I hear from some people is for me to explain someth...

As a time-traveler, and non-smoker, I often think about how much tobacco was in use in old-time Phoenix. If you look at the interior of an old building in Phoenix, and really want to see what it looked like "back in the day", you have to include the use of tobacco. To our modern eyes, it would be a world of smoggy, hazy, rooms, the smell of burning cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. And there would also be the smell of tobacco that had been recently (and not so recently) spit out, into a "spittoon". It's difficult for me to imagine, but the use of tobacco was very common up until the 1970s, when I was coming of age. Up to that time, aside from people who considered it "a nasty habit", it hadn't been conclusively linked to lung cancer, and even doctors smoked. My parents gave up smoking in the late 1960s, but I had often been told that the doctor told my mother to to "continue with her regular habits", which included smoking, when she w...

One of the most common things I hear from people when I ask how long a particular restaurant in Phoenix have been there is, "Since, like, forever". Actually, some people don't even pause, and they just say "Since forever!" What I hear from that is that they don't remember a time when the restaurant wasn't there - even when they were kids. And Sing High Chop Suey House is one of those restaurants. It's been there since, like, forever, If the photo at the top of this post doesn't look familiar to you, even though you've been going to Sing High's since 1981, it just because that it is a photo of the original location, on Madison and 3rd Street. It had to move when the basketball arena was built. That's the Regency Hotel there on the left, so you're looking north. Sing High Chop Suey House in the 1970s, 3rd Street and Madison, Phoenix, Arizona. When I started my research on Sing High, I wondered just how long this restau...

In this blog I like to explore things in my imagination, and I appreciate your coming along with me. Today I'd like to time-travel back to Phoenix before the days of air conditioning. This may seem like too much of a stretch of the imagination, unless, of course, you remember those days. They really weren't that long ago. Speaking for myself, since I came to Phoenix in 1977, my lack of air conditioning just had to do with the fact that the "less than fashionable" apartment that I first lived in had a thing that was called an air conditioner, and the manager insisted that it was supposed to cool the air, but all it did was make noise. I also didn't have air conditioning in my car, as I had come from Minnesota, where it wasn't really needed. But let's travel back further in time. I think that it surprises people that most of the homes that were built by John F. Long in the 1950s and '60s didn't have air conditioning. They had, as an option, ev...

Buying land in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles in 1910 would have been a good investment. There was no steady supply of water there, just the promise of an aqueduct being built to bring in water from Lake Owens almost 300 miles away. So most people would have thought you were crazy to invest. In fact, they would have laughed themselves silly. Bringing water to Los Angeles from that distance was absolutely unthinkable. Stories of the Owens Valley Aqueduct sounded like Jules Verne science fiction. This was 1910, a time when for most people horsepower meant horse power. And it was a era of a lot of crazy speculation, from oil wells to gold mines. Of course, there was no way of knowing if this was going to ever happen, and your investment could have gone the way of millions of other crazy investments created by people who were either "unrealistically optimistic", or just plain con men. But the aqueduct was built, and the water did arrive, three years later. And the ...

It's the 1920s and I'm waiting for a train, which will stop at the station at 3rd Street and Jackson in Phoenix, Arizona. Luckily, I'm staying at the Hardwick Hotel, which is just a few feet away, so I can relax there, and when the train comes, I'll wander over there. I already have my ticket. Relaxing at the Hardwick Hotel in the 1920s, 3rd Street just north of Jackson, Phoenix, Arizona. The Hardwick Hotel, at right, in the 1920s, 3rd Street just north of Jackson, Phoenix, Arizona. In the background to the left, behind the train station, is the Jefferson Hotel, at Central and Jefferson. The tower of the territorial city hall is visible in the center of the photo, which was on Washington and 1st Street. It's an overcast day in Phoenix, which is unusual, so it's pretty comfortable. The Hardwick doesn't have air conditioning, but it has those nice sleeping porches, so I had good night's rest last night. I wonder if the people over there a...

I'm hungry, it's 1906, we're in Phoenix, so let's get some Chinese Food. I know a great place that opened three years ago called the American Kitchen. It's on Center Street between Washington and Adams. 1903 ad for the opening of the American Kitchen, Phoenix, Arizona. Yeah, I know the name "American Kitchen" doesn't sound like a Chinese Food restaurant, but it is. No, I don't speak any Chinese, but the owner, Yee Sing, does, and so do all of the people who work there. Well, enough so that we can get some good food. Come on! They serve the kind of Chinese Food that's so popular in San Francisco these days, you know, Chow Mein, Chinese Noodles, Chop Suey. No, I have no idea if that's what they eat in China, but it's what they eat in California, and it sounds good to me! Ad for the American Kitchen and the English Kitchen in 1911, Phoenix, Arizona Let's see, for the two of us we'll need seventy cents. And then abo...