Papago Park is where we find the tomb of Arizona's first Governor. I posted the story of this unusual tomb back in 2011. (Yikes, 15 years ago.) You can read about this unusual pyramid tomb in the link to my past post. Governor Hunt began serving as governor before Arizona was a state. He guided the way to our statehood. The tomb has been here since 1931 and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
I read about this place in recent news article so I had to drive by and get a photo. This is an old building that has been renovated and turned into a small business incubator. It is a space for innovators to develop their ideas and get small business support. The building used to be the home of Arnold's Pickles.
Arnold's Pickles started business in the early 1900's and in 1920 built this building to house its factory. In 1980, the company merged with Mrs Klein's Pickles which has a much bigger operation on the other side of town.
The pickle in the sign in the top photo is a take on the old Arnold's Pickles mascot, a cucumber wearing a cowboy hat and boots. That mascot used to dance in TV commercials and sing the little jingle "I like Arnold's Pickles, you'll like them too. The only thing that's better than an Arnold's Pickle is two."
I mentioned last Friday that I'd show you some more of the ancient ceramic pieces I saw at the Tucson Art Museum.
This one was my favorite. I'm not quite sure what it is about this one that I find so fascinating. It is so beautifully detailed and well preserved.
It was described as a Standing Male Dignitary found in Veracruz Mexico. It dates between 400 and 800 AD. See what I mean about "well preserved"?
This fellow is described as a seated male orator with raised hands. It dates to 300 AD. He looks like he's telling a story.
Here is an athlete. It's described as a ballplayer and dates between 100 and 300 AD. Another beautifully preserved piece.
One thing I found interesting about all of the figures in these displays were how elongated the faces were on all of them except the one in the top photo (above). That top figure has a completely different look.
I was with friends at a birthday celebration at the Wrigley Mansion last Saturday night and was able to tour around the building once again. The last time I was there I posted photos of the grand staircase. This time I have some photos of other rooms. At one time, the room above was a bedroom for the Wrigley family. Today it is a special meeting and dining room.
The room above was the families main dining room.
The room to the left was another bedroom.
It's always fun to wander around in this majestic place. I always seem to learn something new on every visit.
You can see more photos from this place here, here and here.
I found two very old and very faded slides likely taken sometime in the 60's before we had moved to Arizona. I recognize them as taken in Old Town Scottsdale. That's my dad standing over to the right. I decided to go over to Scottsdale in search of these locations.
This second slide is of a place called Lulu Belle which used to be a gay nineties themed cocktail bar. I don't think any of my family was ever inside the place but I do recall liking the look of the place.
The December 1st theme for City Daily Photo bloggers is "Local History". I decided to revisit the beautiful David and Gladys Wright house created by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1950. The home is one of three spiral designs created by Wright. This one was raised above the ground to give the home views over the citrus orchard that used to surround the home.
The home was designed and built for Wright's son David and his wife Gladys and the pair lived in this home for the rest of their lives. David passed away in 1997 at 102 and Gladys died in 2008 at 104.
After Gladys passed away, the home fell into disrepair. I've posted before about some to the drama that has taken place regarding this home and its preservation. Fortunately, it is now in good hands and is currently undergoing work to restore it to its original look.
In early 2022 it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places giving it the protection it needs to survive.
I have some photos from the inside that I posted a few years ago here.
To see other bloggers local histories, click here.
There are so many means of transportation these days that when I thought about this theme, I couldn't make up my mind which one to use. I decided to show how transportation has change over the past 200 to 300 years. Imagine riding in this for 50 miles or more.
Today we can travel much further distances in much less time and in relative comfort compared to the vehicle above. I say "relative comfort" because we all know those coach seats are still pretty darn uncomfortable. I'll tell you just how uncomfortable later this month when I wing my way to London one more time.
To see other means of transportation from other cities, click here.
Way back in 2007, my friends Julie & Dave introduced me to Crystal Cove State Park on the Newport Coast in California. At that time, it was just in the beginning phase of the restoration and preservation of a tiny beach village where a settlement of people lived in rustic cottages built in the 1920's and 1930's. I took the photo above on that first visit in 2007. I found the old rusted mailbox sitting on the porch of one of the cottages and I thought it had a certain historic charm.
When I returned to the spot in 2013, the old rusty mailbox had been replaced by this new one painted with depictions of the area.
In 2014, the new mailbox was still being used and still sitting on the same porch.
I photographed it again in 2015 when I could see that the rust that had started at the back of the mailbox was now creeping over the top of it.
The 2018 photo above shows the the mailbox was still there in spite of the progression of the rust.
I took the photo to the right just last week when I was in California. That mailbox is still there and in exactly the same spot but it's starting to look similar to the one I photographed all those years ago. If you live by the sea, a little rust is inevitable.
That historic charm that caught my eye in 2007 is still working its magic all these years later.
Yesterday I mentioned that I had attended an event at the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix. While I was there I snapped this photo of one of the restored murals inside the building. The theater was originally built in 1929 but it changed hands many times before the city of Phoenix bought it in 1984 and began a 12-year restoration project. For a while the theater was used as a movie theater and the owners painted the murals black because they thought they would distract from the movies. The city hired a restoration company to remove the black paint and restore the old murals. They are well worth saving.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
When I stepped inside Our Lady of Perpetual Help church, I was somehow surprised at how beautiful it is. It might be both old and small but, it is well cared for.
The altar is beautifully adorned with statues and candles. In a side room I found some beautiful paintings and artifacts collected over the years. The church also had several beautiful stained glass windows.
I'm glad I finally went inside to take a look.
Just down the street from the blacksmith shop I featured yesterday is this historic mission. I've posted photos of parts of this Scottsdale landmark before but I don't think I've ever shown the whole front of the church.
This bench sits on the sidewalk in front of the church. While I was there, I decided I should go inside the church. I might have photographed this church before but, I had never been inside. Tomorrow I'll show you some photos from inside.
Old Town Scottsdale is full of lots of shops and restaurants and galleries but, there are also some historic buildings in the area too. One of them is the old blacksmith's shop. The building is an old adobe building and it still houses an active blacksmith.
Most of the work that is done at Cavalier's Blacksmith Shop is decorative ironwork but there was a time back around 1900, when wagon wheels and horse shoes came out of this shop.
The building is always fun to see when I'm exploring old town Scottsdale. Once or twice I've actually seen those doors open and people working inside.
There is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home not far from me but every time I've passed it, there has been a gate across this drive blocking the view. The last time I drove by, the gate was opened so I finally got the shot. I love the outside of this home. I wish I could see the inside.
I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today. I'm looking at the architecture of the Getty Museum.
Since I was at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel & Resort Wednesday evening, I couldn't resist a photo of the front of the building all lit up with lights. Since this is considered "off-season" here in the desert, the place was pretty quiet. In fact, there were only a handful of people enjoying the inside bar while we were there.
I snapped this photo looking across the hotel lobby. When I visit here in the winter months, there is no way to get this photo without lots of people it it. As you can see, it was pretty quiet while we were there.
I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today. I'm continuing my look at The Wallace Collection in London.
The Westward Ho was built in 1928 and for a while it was the tallest building in Phoenix at 16 stories. It lost that title in 1960 when a new building in downtown Phoenix was completed.
The Westward Ho started life as a hotel and operated as such until 1980. There used to be a restaurant on the top floor called The Top of the Ho. And, there were several ballrooms that were used for numerous large events.
Today it has been converted into subsidized housing apartments for the elderly and mobility impaired.
In all the years I've lived in Arizona, I've never attended an event in this building or had any other reason to go inside. I wonder what it used to be like.
I didn't remember that the lobby had niches with busts in them. I believe there were four altogether.
At one end of the lobby is the "peacock" staircase. It's called that because of the beautiful peacock that is located on the underside of the stairs.
It's such a beautiful place. I'd love to explore it more.
Saturday evening, I went to another Phoenix Symphony concert and this time it was at The Orpheum instead of Symphony Hall. I hadn't been inside the Orpheum Theater in a long time so it was nice to see it once again. I featured some photos of the outside of this historic theater back in 2019. You can see those here.
The top photo is looking forward toward the stage and this photo is looking toward the back and the balcony above the theater. I love the lighting they use to light up the ceiling.
This photo just concentrates on the details above the proscenium arch. I love the seven rows of ribbons that frame the stage. Each one has a different pattern. They don't build theaters like this any longer.
Tomorrow I'll show you some details from the lobby area. It was exciting to once again be inside this historic building.
Just a few weeks ago, I found this post card that I had written to my Mom and Dad way back in the late 1970's. I can't read the exact post mark on the card but it was probably around 1978 or 1979. I took a trip to Washington D.C. and New York with some friends and I wrote mom and dad about my experience of standing on top of one of the twin towers.
In fact, here's a photo of me standing at the top to admire the view.
That hair is definitely 1970's hair when we all wanted to look like Farrah Fawcett.
As most of you know, today is the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack that brought these two buildings crashing to the ground. Finding that post card a few weeks ago seemed very timely and a perfect opportunity to use the card for this post.
I had to do some digging to find the photo of me on the top.
It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since that terrible day. As with most Americans, I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. I was working one of my contract jobs in San Francisco at the time and I had flown back to that city just the evening before this happened. So waking up to this news was quite a shock. I will never forget that evening when I walked to a co-worker's apartment building. There was not a sole on the street and no air traffic flying over the city. It was so strangely quiet.
