The Arizona Preservation Foundation is releasing its 2012 list of Arizona's 25 most endangered historic places. Compiled by preservation professionals and historians, the list identifies critically endangered cultural resources of major historical significance to the state.

1. 2012 Most Endangered
Historic Places

2. Introduction
• The Arizona Preservation Foundation is releasing its 2012 list of Arizona's 25 most
endangered historic places. Compiled by preservation professionals and historians,
the list identifies critically endangered cultural resources of major historical
significance to the state.
• "Each of the places we have named is an important historic site, but unfortunately is
in grave danger of collapse, demolition, or destruction," said Jim McPherson, Arizona
Preservation Foundation Board President. “As our Centennial year draws to a close
– the perfect time to reflect on our state’s past, present, and future – it is crucial that
residents, private interests, and government officials act now to save these elements
of our cultural heritage before it is too late.”
• Historian Vince Murray of Prescott and architect Philip Reina of Glendale co-chaired
the Foundation's initiative to investigate the status of each entry and determine what
should be dropped off, what should remain and why, and what should be added.

3. Changes from Previous Lists
• Five buildings on previous lists were destroyed: the 1962 Valley National Bank
"Gold Dome" branch was demolished in 2007 by Arizona State University, the
1913 Havasu Hotel in Seligman was demolished in 2008 by the BSNF Railway
Company, the 1921-22 Mohave County Hospital was demolished in 2008 by the
County, the 1939 Southern Pacific Railroad Depot in Casa Grande suffered
significant damage from suspected arson in 2009, and the 1928 Eastman Cotton
Gin was demolished by the Town of Buckeye in 2012.
• On the positive side, six historic sites were removed from previous lists because
significant progress was made to ensure their preservation: Desert Laboratory on
Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale, Mesa Grande
Platform Mound Ruins in Mesa, Old U.S. Highway 80 Bridge between Buckeye
and Gila Bend, Second Pinal County Courthouse in Florence, and Valley National
Bank (now Chase Bank) at 44th Street & Camelback Road in Phoenix.

4. Adamsville Ruins
Adamsville is a large Classic Hohokam habitation
site, dating from AD 1100 to AD 1450, consisting of
a platform, mound, at least one compound, a ball
court, and 41 associated mounds of which some still
Photo: University of Arizona Library
have standing architecture. Listed on the National
Register of Historic Places, it is located near the
19th century town for which it is named. It is the
second largest Hohokam housing area along the
Canal Casa Grande, second only to the
combined communities of Grewe and Casa Grande.
The current size of the site is 155 acres of which
126 acres are proposed for addition to Casa Grande
National Monument. The site is threatened by
encroachment from commercial development and
the State of Arizona is not able to provide adequate
protection.

5. Arizona State Parks
Our Arizona State Parks are in trouble. The
economic downturn and tight state budget led the
State Legislature to strip out and redirect most State
Parks funding. Some Parks have closed. Others are
on the list for closure. Dedicated and experienced
employees have been laid off and Heritage Fund
grants were eradicated. Elimination of the voter-
Photo: Arizona State Parks
approved Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund in
FY2010 caused a $10 million permanent annual
revenue reduction and removed the last source of
Parks’ capital and maintenance funding. This also
removed all matching funding for historic
preservation projects as well as all local, regional,
and state park enhancements & trails
improvements. It is urged that the Governor and
State Legislature consider a fully operational State
Parks system and additional funds obtained through
supplemental and sustainable funding sources.

6. Basque Pelota Ball Court
Basque Pelota is a handball-like game originating
on the borders of Spain and France. When Basques
immigrated to America in the 1800s, they brought
their sport with them. Approximately two dozen
Pelota ball courts exist in the U.S. Of that, a dozen
or so remain west of the Mississippi and only one
remains in Arizona. Currently, there are issues over
how the site in Flagstaff can be and should be
Photo: Patty Rubick Luttrell
developed. Though the owners would like to
preserve the property and city officials have
proposed several scenarios for preservation, their
efforts at reuse on the site have been fraught with
problems outside of their control.

7. Broadway Boulevard
Broadway was born modern. The boulevard
expressed the new American optimism and post-war
economic boom. Like many cities, Tucson was
growing rapidly. In 1940, the population was 35,000;
by 1960, it soared to 212,000. As an important
suburban corridor, modern structures were built
along its edge to support new neighborhoods with
Photo: Jude Ignacio & Gerardine Vargas
their curved streets and rambling ranch houses.
Broadway was a reflection of the American Dream.
The Regional Transportation Authority funding,
approved by Pima County voters on May 16, 2006,
included plans for significant expansion of Tucson’s
mid‑century modern Broadway Boulevard. The
scope expands the road from 4 to 8 lanes and
threatens 127 significant and National Register
eligible properties and the small businesses they
house.

8. Buckhorn Baths
In 1939, Ted and Alice Sliger established the baths
unknowing that their efforts to make a living of the
natural mineral waters would help to establish Mesa
and the East Salt River Valley as a mecca for
professional baseball. In 1947, the New York Giants
Photo: Mesa Preservation Foundation
made the Buckhorn Baths their spring training home
and continued to do so for 25-plus years. Ty Cobb,
Leo Durocher, Willie Mays, Gaylord Perry, and
others were regular guests. The Sligers established
a post office, bus stop, water hole, museum, and
motel, which they operated for 65-plus years. Also
known as the Buckhorn Mineral Wells and Wildlife
Museum, the latter moniker due to an immense
taxidermy collection, the baths have been closed for
years. Listed on the National Register of Historic
Places, the location of the Buckhorn Baths makes it
a prime target for development, and speculation is
rampant that this part of Mesa and Arizona history
could be lost.

9. Camp Naco
This adobe compound was between 1919 and
1923, as part of the U.S. War Department's Mexican
Border Defense construction project -- a plan to
build a 1,200-mile barrier along the border. After the
camp closed, the Civilian Conservation Corps used
the complex in the 1930s for staging projects in
Photo: Arizona Public Media
southeast Arizona. Over the next several decades,
the property owners used the structures as rental
housing. Now owned by the Town of Huachuca City,
the property has been heavily degraded due to
neglect. Many of the adobe structures are eroded
from exposure to the elements. The roof of one of
the barracks has caved in, and other buildings
merely ruins. In May 2006, arson destroyed four of
the non-commissioned officer buildings and
damaged the roof of a fifth. Unchecked vegetation is
threatening the foundation of buildings and
increasing the danger of fire.

10. Copper Miner Monument
In 1935, at the height of the Great Depression,
renowned artist Raymond Sanderson created a
stunning art deco sculpture dedicated to the “virile
men, the copper miners.” Produced under the
Works Project Administration, the monument
survives today as a unique icon to Bisbee and a
significant piece of American art. While the
sculpture appears to be in good structural condition,
localized areas of fine cracking appear near the
base and deep cracking across the legs at the
knees and ankles. The City of Bisbee fears that
without preservation and restoration funds, the
Photo: Arizona Oddities
statue may fall into ruin and a unique form of
artwork lost.

11. David & Gladys Wright House
When it learned in May 2012 that the David &
Gladys Wright House in Phoenix’s Arcadia
neighborhood had been purchased by developers
who had indicated their intent to bulldoze the
structure and build two “luxury homes,” the Frank
Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy requested the
City of Phoenix to grant historic preservation and
landmark designation to the house. A number of
local, state, and national organizations endorsed the
Photo: Scott Jarson
Conservancy’s appeal. The City of Phoenix Historic
Preservation Commission, Camelback East Village
Planning Committee, and Planning Commission
have recommended landmark status to the Phoenix
City Council. A new (anonymous) buyer has stated
his intent to restore and preserve the property, but
the sale has not been completed.

12. Empire Ranch
Located in the 42,000-acre Las Cienegas National
Conservation Area and listed on the National
Register of Historic Places, Empire Ranch traces its
history to the 1870s, when a 160-acre quarter
section homestead was bought by Walter Vail and
Herbert Hilsop. At the time, the ranch house was a
Photo: Empire Ranch Foundation
four-room adobe, with a zaguan (breezeway) that
passed between the rooms into the corral. By the
turn of the 20th Century, the ranch covered almost a
million acres and the house had grown to 22 rooms.
The Vail family lived there until the 1920s, when
Edward Boice of the Chiricahua Cattle Co. bought
and then ranched the property until the 1970s. In
1988, the BLM bought the property through a public-
private land swap and designated the ranch lands
as a natural conservation area, which it remains
today. The Empire Ranch Foundation has worked to
preserve the ranch house and outbuildings,
including emergency repairs and stabilization.

13. First Baptist Church
This church was completed in 1930 to serve
parishioners in central Phoenix before suburban
expansion after World War II. The four-story building
includes a roof-top garden, concrete and wood
floors, diamond-patterned clerestory windows,
Italian gothic motifs, three-pointed arch doorways,
decorative cornices, stone columns, and a bell
tower. While saved from demolition in 1992 from
previous fire damage and despite the best intentions
Photo: Natascha Payton
of its current owner, the building continues to lay
dormant.

14. Fisher Memorial House
This Casa Grande house was built in 1927 and
listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1985. When listed, it was considered an outstanding
example of a Period Revival residential and
commercial building executed in local material of
uncoursed fieldstone construction. The house is
currently in a significant state of disrepair. Some
windows and doors are missing or damaged and the
roof is leaking, which can cause structural damage.
Photo: Marge Jantz

15. Geronimo Station
Located between Safford and Globe on the
westbound side of Interstate 70 is a small store, gas
station, and four-casita motel (complete with
carports between the units). Constructed of adobe
in the 1930s and 1940s to accommodate travelers
heading west, it is one of the few original buildings
still standing in the state-registered historic town-site
of Geronimo. The property is in poor condition and
is deteriorating from neglect.
Photo: Kurt Wenner

16. Glendale Tract Community Center
The Glendale Tract Community Center, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, is a 1,900
square foot adobe structure built in 1937. The social
hall served the surrounding residential subdivision
developed by the Resettlement Administration, a
New Deal agency. The 24-home subdivision was
created as part of a plan to relocate displaced
farmers and unemployed urban workers to planned,
part-time subsistence farm projects where they
could grow their own crops. The current historic
Photo: Ronald Short
district consists of 13 of the original houses and the
community center, all of which are rare examples of
New Deal programs. While the City of Glendale has
rejected initial plans to demolish certain buildings, it
is only because the City will not allow more than five
residences to be built. The owner needs eight to
make their project viable, but if they can make due
with a smaller number of residences, there is little to
stop the demolition.

17. Gonzales Martinez House
The modest vernacular Gonzales Martinez House is
one of only two buildings from Tempe’s formative
first decade, constructed by Ramon Gonzales in
1880 of locally-produced adobe. In 1892, Jesus
Martinez purchased the property in whose family it
miraculously remained for more than 90 years.
Given all the changes that have occurred in and
around downtown Tempe, it is surprising that the
structure has survived. The reason may have more
to do with a long-standing property dispute only
recently resolved between the City, State, and
railroad. Without intervention, the house will most
Photo: City of Tempe
likely be lost to inner city decline. The entire site is
of sufficient size to be used for high-density
development.

18. J.N. Denier Tenement House
The 1888 J. N. Denier Tenement House is located
across the street from the Second Pinal County
Courthouse. This flat-roofed Sonoran row house
retains much of its original fabric and has not been
subjected to excessive remodeling. An Anglo-Style
half-hipped roof was added between 1898 and
1911. Several original canales (rain spouts)
designed to drain the building’s original earth roof
Photo: Bonnie Bariola
still project from the upper part of the south adobe
wall just underneath the deep curved overhanging
eaves of the “new” shingled roof above. According
to the SHPO there are components found in no
other building in the state of Arizona. Construction
documents were prepared utilizing Arizona State
Parks Heritage Funds, but once the Heritage Fund
was defunded by the State Legislature no further
work was performed. The building is in serious need
of rehabilitation.

19. Maple Ash Neighborhood
The Maple Ash Neighborhood consists of three
subdivisions, the largest concentration of historic
resources in Tempe. The Gage Addition, Park Tract,
and College View subdivisions are significant as one
of Tempe’s oldest surviving neighborhoods. The
area is adjacent to downtown Tempe, Arizona State
University, and Tempe St. Luke's Hospital, each of
which have exerted pressure on the neighborhood
at various times in the past. While the City Historic
Photo: City of Tempe
Preservation Commission and Office and a majority
of the neighborhood’s historic home owners would
like to have a historic district zoning overlay placed
on the neighborhood, the property is zoned multi-
family and many owners would prefer to develop
their properties. Without some kind of protections,
preservation advocates see the historic character of
the neighborhood, and with it any potential
designation to the National Register of Historic
Places, in jeopardy.

20. Marist College
The three-story, Marist College was built in 1915 by
Manual Flores, a Tucson contractor. A component of
the downtown precinct of the Diocese of Tucson,
the school provided a Catholic education for boys
from elementary school to high school sophomore
year. It was an educational facility until 1968, when
it became office space for the Diocese of Tucson. It
has been vacant since 2002. Marist College is
threatened by structural destabilization caused by
the collapse of two corners and the cracking of a
third. This deterioration is due to water penetration
that comes from leaks in the roof and from the
scupper and downspout drainage system. A re-
Photo: Eric Vondy
plastering 30 years ago with a plasticized composite
stucco (Tuff-Tex) has cracked and spalled, allowing
water to penetrate the walls but preventing the
adobe from drying. Emergency bracing has
temporarily stabilized the building, but there is a
clear and present danger of collapse if a permanent
solution is not implemented.

21. Meehan/Gaar House
Built in 1903 and listed on the National Register of
Historic Places, this Casa Grande house is an
unusual example of the Colonial Revival influence
executed in adobe. The structure is also significant
for its association with two of Casa Grande's well-
known citizens: Tom J. Meehan who built the house,
owned Gilt Edge Saloon, and served on the Casa
Grande Board of Trade; and Fanne Gaar who
Photo: Marge Jantz
served on the City Council and was the first woman
to be elected mayor of an Arizona city. The
Meehan/Gaar House is currently in a state of
disrepair with deteriorating veranda, roofing, and
adobe walls.

22. Mesa Citrus Growers
Association Building
The 1935 citrus packinghouse is located at the
southwest corner of Mesa’s town center at
Broadway and Country Club. Adjacent to the
railroad, its output was easily shipped. The complex
represents the heyday of Valley agriculture,
particularly citrus growing. With citrus acreage
rapidly being replaced by new development, the
packinghouse now is the last example of the once
Photo: East Valley Tribune
powerful citrus industry in metro Phoenix. With
packing operations suspended in June 2010, the
site has been put up for sale, thereby placing the
structures at risk for clearing and new development.

23. Mountain View
Colored Officers Club
High on a hill overlooking Fort Huachuca Army base
in Sierra Vista sits a dilapidated building that once
echoed with the sublime song stylings of Lena
Horne during World War II. She came to entertain
the black troops at the Mountain View Colored
Officers Club, built in 1942 by the then-segregated
Army for its growing number of colored soldiers. A
Photo: Parade Magazine
plan to preserve that building and turn it into an
African-American military research center is on the
drawing board, but an estimated $3 million is
needed to save and convert the club.

24. Peter T. Robinson House
A 1905 brick cottage with Neo-Classical influence
listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Peter T. Robinson was a prominent local attorney,
active in Yuma community affairs. The house is
vacant and is broken into regularly. The roof is open
to the sky, the floor is caving in, and a small fire
destroyed the eastern portico and some of the roof
over the kitchen.
Photo: Vincent Murray

25. Sage Memorial Hospital School
of Nursing
The Ganado Mission was established in 1901 by the
Presbytery of Arizona through the Board of Home
Missions. A decade later, the board approved a
twelve bed hospital at Ganado. This was the first
non-governmental funded hospital on an Indian
reservation in the U.S. About 60 buildings were built
Photo: National Park Service
before 1957, including the 1903 manse, 1911 Adobe
West, 1920 Dining Hall (one of the oldest and
largest two-story adobes in the U.S), and 1929
Almira College. The Sage Memorial Hospital School
of Nursing was the first accredited nursing training
program in the U.S. for Native American women.
Over the last 35 years, drainage problems have
detrimentally affected the foundations of some of
the structures due to uncontrolled runoff and soil
expansion. Unabated, the differential settlement
may cause the foundations to shift and the
structures to fail.

26. San Ysidro Ranch Ruins
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places,
the San Ysidro Hacienda was the home of Jose
Maria Redondo, an early Arizona pioneer. The ranch
once contained over 2,000 acres, but subsequent to
the death of Redondo in 1878, his family could not
make a claim to more than 160 under American
homestead laws; not enough land to support the
hacienda's extensive agricultural operations and it
quickly fell into ruin. The site once contained the
Photo: Yuma Sun
adobe ruins of the main ranch house, a two-story
mill, and rubble mounds; the original headquarters
included a cane mill, numerous storehouses,
workhouses, stables, carriage house, harness
house; and houses for approximately 100 laborers'
families built outside the walls of the headquarters.
Named for the patron saint of agriculture, it was the
first large non-Indian irrigated farm in Arizona with
27 miles of canals and ditches bringing water from
Gila River. Recent development has encroached on
the site and the ruins are now at risk.

27. Sun Mercantile Building
Designed by E.W. Bacon and constructed by Wells
& Son, the 1929 Sun Mercantile Building is the first
and only known warehouse built and owned by a
Chinese-born businessman in Phoenix (Tang
Shing). It is the last remaining building of the city’s
second Chinatown. Developers of a hotel and condo
project want to insert an 11-story tower inside the
walls of this city-owned structure, listed on both the
Photo: Steve Dreiseszun
National Register of Historic Places and Phoenix
Historic Property Register. After the Phoenix City
Council's unanimous vote on December 14, 2005 to
allow the "facadomy," the Save Sun Merc Coalition,
Arizona Preservation Foundation, and twelve other
groups filed an appeal in Maricopa County Superior
Court and received a favorable ruling from the
judge.

28. White Gates House
Perhaps the first residential design by architect Al
Beadle, the White Gates House was probably
influenced by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s 1951
Farnsworth House. Previous owners gutted the
interior and scraped the landscape from the
property. Eligible for the National Register of Historic
Places, the house sits vacant. Homes in the
neighborhood sell in the seven figures and the
property is valuable for redevelopment. If action is
not taken soon, the owner may be required by the
City to demolish the house and sell the property.
Photo: David Cook

29. About the Foundation
• The Arizona Preservation Foundation is Arizona's nonprofit statewide
historic preservation organization. Founded in 1979, the Foundation is
dedicated to preserving Arizona's historic, archaeological, architectural,
and cultural resources.
• The Foundation offers a variety of services and programs, including:
Arizona Historic Preservation Conference, Governor's Heritage
Preservation Awards; Speakers Bureau, Preservation Resource List, and
Arizona's Most Endangered Places List.
• The Foundation encourages feedback on the endangered places list and
what might be added in the future. If you have updates or ideas to share,
call 602-258-1920 or email info@azpreservation.org For more information
about the Foundation, visit azpreservation.org or its Facebook page.