The end of Ichabod, the tree, in downtown Phoenix in 1929


I don't have a photo of Ichabod. I don't suppose anyone thought that it was worthwhile to take a photo of an old tree in downtown Phoenix in 1929. And of course it had to go, as progress was marching forward, and Phoenix was booming. But people remember.

Ichabad was an old eucalyptus tree behind the Occidental Boarding House. The Occidental was just across the alley from the Heard Building, which is still there, between Adams and Monroe on Central.

In Uncle Billy Reminisces: The Story Of A Newspaper by J. W. Spear, the alley is described as "Our Alley". It's also been called Melinda's Alley and Adams Alley. And although alleys nowadays are places for garbage bins, in old-time Phoenix, they were places where people lived, and walked.



When the Craig Building, which is still there, was built in 1929, the old Occidental, and Ichabod, had to go. And the alley became what we think of as an alley nowadays, a place where people go only for maintenance of buildings, to put out the trash, that sort of thing. But I like to imagine the time when people would relax under the shade of that tree.

Central Avenue between Adams and Monroe in 1922. That's the Heard Building on the left. If you walked down the alley, you would see Ichabod, behind the Occidental.

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