Casa Grande Downtown

INTRODUCTION

The Casa Grande Townsite was created in 1892 when a patent was granted to John Miller, Probate Judge for Pinal County, by the U. S. Government, on 160 acres making up the N.W. quarter of Section 29 in Township 6 South, of Range 6 E. of the Gila and Salt River Meridian in Arizona Territory, in accordance with the provisions of the Acts of Congress of April 24, 1820 concerning sale of public lands.

The patent was dated August 8, 1892, and signed by President Benjamin Harrison.

The document shows a population of 150 people living here at that time. This was thirteen years after the Southern Pacific Railroad had arrived here, making this a major shipping point on its line connecting San Francisco with cities in the east. The railroad had named the stop Casa Grande because it was the nearest point from which debarking passengers could visit what was even then a growing tourist attraction, the Casa Grande I ndian Ruins, twenty miles to the northeast.

With so much activity taking place here during the thirteen years between 1879 and 1892, the City of Casa Grande dates its origin from the time of the arrival of the railroad, rather than that of the granting of the Townsite patent.

The Old Townsite was laid out to follow the railroad line, so all the streets in the area have a Northwest-Southeast orientation rather than true North and South as have the later subdivisions around it. This gives the area a unique and readily identifiable character of its own.

(1) CASA GRANDE VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AUDITORIUM - corner of Florence Boulevard and Park Avenue

It's the first thing you notice when you come into town from the west.

It looks like a church. And that is what it used to be - the First Presbyterian Church of Casa Grande. It was designed by Los Angeles architect, Robert Orr, and was built over a two-year period from March 1926 to December 1927, to replace an outgrown two-room frame building located about six blocks further south which had been used by Protestants of all denominations for over thirty years.

As the town grew, so did the Protestant church membership, and in 1920 the Presbyterians made plans for a new and larger manse and sanctuary to be located here on the edge of the Old Town. The estimated cost was $25,000.

The manse, no longer standing, faced Park Street and was located near the end of what is now the west wing of the museum.

The contractor for the sanctuary called for a large vestibule at one end and a full raised basement underneath to be used for the Sunday School and the church’s social activities.

The contractor for the sanctuary was Michael Sullivan, a local stonemason, who used field stone gathered from the nearby desert.

A story is told of the pastor and church members working late on Christmas Eve getting the new sanctuary ready so that the first service could be held here on Christmas day, December 25, 1927.

Forty years later, these facilities too were outgrown and by 1968 it became necessary for the congregation to make another move - this time to a donated five acre lot on Cottonwood Lane which is the church's present location. Expansion costs and shortage of parking space were given as the principal reasons for the move.

The building served for several years after that as a mortuary chapel.

Then, in 1977 the property was acquired by the Casa Grande Valley Historical Society. The sanctuary now serves as an auditorium; museum storage rooms and workrooms are in the basement.

As can be seen from the picture, taken around 1929, the building still looks almost exactly as it did when first built. Except for the stained glass in the sanctuary windows, the outside appearance has remained virtually unchanged.

It doesn't take much imagination to guess what an impressive sight it must have been when new, with its red tile roof and glittering copper dome. To get the full effect of its commanding presence on this street, even today, we suggest that you take another look at it from further down on Sacaton Street as you progress on your tour.

This stone edifice was very likely Michael Sullivan's crown-ing achievement. He died, at age 74, of a heart attack at the wheel of his car, in March 1928 - less than three months after the first service was held here. Active to the end, he was to construct a home for Rev. Dirk Lay, in Sacaton, when he died.

(2) SITE OF CENTRAL SCHOOL - S. E. corner of Florence Boulevard and Sacaton Street

When Central School was torn down in 1974, Casa Grande lost one of its most beautiful buildings.

This two-level, Mission-style reflection of a fast growing community's civic pride was commissioned in 1913 by the Board of Trustees - Ramon Cruz, Thomas R. Peart and Judge Charles F. Bennett, for the sum of $25,000.

It was at a time when Casa Grande's total population was probably no more than six or seven hundred people, but growing so rapidly, day by day, that tents were being used to house newcomers. School enrollment had jumped from 61 in 1912 to 113 in 1913.

The new school was designed by the architectural firm of Henry O. Jaastad of Tucson, on consultation with Principal W. J. Magaw and the members of the Board.

On the ground floor were four classrooms (to accommodate 200 students). a principal's office and an auditorium ( seating 300). Additional rooms and space for heating equipment were located in a half-basement under the classroom area.

The classrooms were to be three and a half feet above ground level and the auditorium eighteen inches above ground, designed thusly, it was reported, "to avoid the squatty look of a one-story building." It was the finest school in Arizona, the newspaper proudly announced.

The request for sealed bids was put out in July of 1913 for a brick walled building on a stone and concrete foundation, with a spatterdash finish, a red tile roof, modern indoor plumbing and central heating.

Six bids were received and the contract was awarded to A. A. Ray of Phoenix for his bid of $21,000. He promised to have the building ready by the first of January. (I n the meantime classes were being held in the Alrdorne).

Excavation started in August. A well was dug and a pump-ing plant was installed. C. R. Cox was in charge of carpentry work. Brick came from the Tucson Brick Co.

The local newspaper kept everyone informed of the school's progress.

When school started on January 5, 1914, the new school was ready. Dedication ceremonies were held on January 10th.

113 students, 60 boys and 53 girls, were enrolled that school year. 105 completed the spring term in the new building. The teachers were Dan Peart, son of Board member Thomas Peart, Mrs. T. C. Travis and Prof. Magaw.

This school, identified on early maps as the "Northside School", served the community for almost sixty years. Until Casa Grande Union High School was built in 1921, both high school and elementary classes were held here. Additions to the property were made over the years; a second brick building was later added, and wooden barracks were moved in after World War II.

Then, in 1971, the School Board judged Central School to be unsafe and put the property up for sale. It was purchased by a group of local investors. When none of the buildings were found to be economically adaptable for other uses, the school was torn down.

The bell and the cupola were saved and will eventually be displayed on the grounds of the Historical Society Museum.

Only the olive trees, planted in 1916, remain to mark the site.

The Woman's Club of Casa Grande was organized in 1913, the same year that Central School was built.

One of the club's first projects was to provide a library for the town so this Pueblo Revival-style stone clubhouse, put up In 1924, is the result of the town's desire for a library as much as it is the club's need for a meeting place of its own.

For the next several years the members spearheaded a community-wide effort to raise money to purchase the lots and put up a building.

In April 1923, Tucson architect Henry Jaastad was commissioned to design the building, and skilled stonemason, Mike Sullivan, was hired to do the construction work with the aid of a carpenter.

The main part of the building houses a central meeting room, 38' x 51', with a 20' ceiling cross-hatched with exposed beams. A theater stage with curtains and lights extends across the west end of this room.

There is a kitchen on the northeast corner of the building, and an L-shaped lounge on the southeast corner housed the first library.

The cornerstone for the clubhouse was laid on January 25, 1924. Dedication ceremonies were held in November of that same year with some of the construction work yet to be done. The floor was just packed dirt and no plumbing was in yet.

But the library opened at once, two days a week, on Tues-days and Saturdays, with a librarian being paid one dollar a day to oversee the small collection of books the club members had assembled. (An earlier collection of books had burned when Peart's house burned down in 1915. The library was temporarily housed then in Lillian Peart's home.)

Hardwood flooring and plumbing were installed sometime later. And when this work was completed the clubhouse became a center for social and civic activities which have continued to this day.

Lunches and dinners, dances, card parties, plays, sings, meetings of various organizations, fashion shows, flower shows, ballet classes, First Aid classes, baby sitter classes and church services have all been held here.

I n the 1950's the library, now the Casa Grande City Library, moved into larger quarters in another part of town. The former library room then became a temporary museum when the Woman's Club initiated the formation of the Casa Grande Valley Historical Society. Now both the library and the museum have identities of their own.

So successful has the Woman's Club been in getting things such as this started over the years, one former resident has been moved to ca II it the "Mother of Institutions."

Both the stone church across the way, and the Woman's Club building, because of their more than fifty years of service to the community and because both have retained their integrity during all of that time, in spite of their shifting roles, have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

They are the only two buildings in Casa Grande to have this recognition, to date.

(4) GUSTAV KRATZKA HOUSE - corner of Maricopa and W. 3rd Street

The Kratzka house is a large single-story concrete bungalow built in 1929.

It displays many of the typical bungalow design features so popular in the United States during the two decades immediately following the turn of the century, including the broad over hanging roof and the full length open porch with its low square piers at the porch entry and block support piers at the corners.

An April 1929 news story tells us more about the house as follows:

"Permanence and comfort as well as beauty have been emphasized in the Kratzka home. There are 7 large rooms, which will be cool in the hot summer or can be made pleasantly cozy in the winter. A porch to the south can be closed tight or opened to the breeze if desired.

"One pleasing feature of the Kratzka home is the bathroom. It is quite large and has a shower as well as a tub.

"A rather unusual fixture is a 'California Cooler.' It is a cupboard connecting with the basement and without ice it is practically as cool as the cellar."

About the Kratzkas themselves, we learn from reading the newspapers of the time that they were the type of settlers the land promoters here welcomed with open arms.

They came from Long Beach, California in 1911, the year after they were married, and took up 720 acres of patented desert land west of Casa Grande.

They brought with them not only their knowledge of south-western agriculture, but also several carloads of blooded cattle, hogs and horses.

I n addition, they brought in a welcome new industry. Gus was an experienced baker and restaurant operator, financially prepared, after selling his business in California, to set himself up a successful business here.

Both he and his wife are remembered as industrious and generous people. They often fed hungry hobos, riding the rails from one town to another, looking for work. And there were always big sugar cookies on hand for the neighborhood children.

A German immigrant, who had reportedly served in the German army, Gus was very proud of his adopted country and took an active part in community affairs. He was on the committee which drew up the Articles of I corporation for the City of Casa Grande in 1914, and served on the first city council.

In 1916 he helped organize a city brass band and is said to have helped pay for instruments for those who couldn't afford to buy them. He served as president of the new organization; Prof. Carl Gungle, father of the town doctor, was the band director.

The Kratzkas built this house to be their retirement home after they sold the farm and the downtown business. "Polly" Pace once recalled that the house and barns on the Kratzka's farm "were reminiscent of Gus' native Germany," but in selecting the style for this house they couldn't have been more typically American.

The bungalow style house is described in the book America's Forgotten Architecture as "a prototype of the middle class home." It was a practical answer to a mild climate and an informal lifestyle and up until the 1930's, builders' plans for bungalow homes sold for only a few dollars apiece.

There are numerous fine examples of bungalow homes in other parts of town as well.

(5) WILLIAM DAY HOME - 306 W. 1st Street

This fourteen room house originated as a two room adobe Sonoran style dwelling, built some time before 1890. Judge William T. Day purchased the property from Jesse Mayhew in 1898.

The house is still in the Day family, and the original two rooms are easily identified inside.

Day was a Virginia school teacher who arrived in Arizona in 1882. He had worked his way west after the Civil War, coming to Arizona by way of Utah, Colorado, Montana and New Mexico, picking up several years of experience in mining and trading along the way.

He was hired in 1886 by John D. Walker and his brother Julian to be the Superintendent and General Manager of the Vekol mine, which they owned, south of Casa Grande.

When he left the Vekol, some fourteen years later, he went to the mining area of Quijotoa, did some prospecting on his own and established a trading post among the Papago Indians.

We learn that in 1891 he "allowed" himself to be elected to represent his district in the 17th Legislative Session of the Territorial Legislature. But he served only that one term. He refused to engage in politics again, though he did serve as Justice of the Peace in the Papago country - hence the title, Judge Day.

When he came to Arizona, Day had his family with him - his wife, Rosalie, and three children, W. T. Day Jr. (Tom), Darby A. Day (Arthur), and Mabel.

With his family, he operated the trading post at Quijotoa for many years before finally retiring (around 1914) and turning the operation over to his son Tom.

Of his home in Casa Grande, it is said "he never used it much in the early days except to spend his nights here when on his supply trips."

It was later enlarged, and modified into the bungalow style building shown in the picture above, by the addition of a veranda and a low sloping hipped roof with dormer window.

Since then, most of the veranda has been closed in to provide additional living space.

Day died on November 23, 1920 and is buried in the Pioneer cemetery on Peart Road.

This house in now owned and occupied by his granddaughter, Rosalie Ludwig Chamberlain.

(6) SITE OF THE SAN CARLOS HOTEL - N. W. corner of Sac¬aton and W. 1st Street

An undated biographical publication entitled What Makes Arizona Men tells us that "Judge William T. Day retired a short time ago," and that - "adjacent to his home together with his son, he erected a splendid business block, the upper floor of which when completed will be devoted to use as a hotel to be known as the San Carlos. The building is concrete and tile and is one of the best structures for business in the city."

All that remains of that splendid new building now is this concrete platform.

Unfortunately, we do not have the name of an architect or a builder, or even a construction date.

We do know that it was Darby Day who largely financed the project. He had acquired some considerable wealth as Chicago Branch Manager of the Mutual Life I nsurance Co. of New York, and may have had the construction plans drawn up in Chicago.

The building faced Sacaton Street and had commercial rental areas on either side of the lobby, as well as a restaurant, on the lower floor. The C. C. Reeves store, Phoenix Flour Mill's branch office, J. B. Steere's Furniture Store, Harris Market and Grocery, McMatt's Wonder Bar were all housed here at one time or another.

The thirty room hotel on the second floor opened for business in December 1920, with W. T. Day, Jr., as manager.

Several changes were made to the building as years went by. An arched walkway was added outside, presumably for shade. In 1929 a new cooling system was installed, to be in every room upstairs as well as in the lobby and grill downstairs. Also in 1929, eight new bathrooms were added.

The San Carlos continued in operation 'till 1974. Then, in 1979 new owners undertook a complete renovation. The building was to be modernized, "to become a mini-mall" according to part-owner Jay Wilson. Ochoa's Mexican food restaurant was to be on the second floor.

Unfortunately, the construction work was delayed for several months because of financial problems, and one memorable evening, on December 2, 1980, the building was destroyed by arson.

It was a real loss to Casa Grande's downtown area.

(7) SACATON HOTEL - N. E. corner of Sacaton and W. 1st Street

The Sacaton Hotel faced the San Carlos Hotel directly across Sacaton Street, as is shown in this street scene taken in 1920 from Main Street looking north. The Sacaton Hotel is the large two-story building in the center of the photo. The San Carlos is on the left.

This stucco-faced concrete building was constructed in 1917 by Holland M. Minear and was operated by members of his family for many years.

Mr. Minear had acquired the property in 1910. We read of his putting up a carpenter shop here in 1915. Then, in 1917, he started the present structure which opened as the Sacaton Rooming House on November 1, 1918.

Alterations in 1920, 1929 and 1950 have greatly changed the outside appearance. There have been additions on the north and on the east. Also at one time there was a veranda. Two second story doors on the south side open to iron balcony fire escapes which replaced the veranda.

The exterior was faced with Ashlar, a square cut building stone, in the 1950's.

Numerous businesses have occupied the ground floor of the hotel, including C. K. Chilberg's real estate office, Jack New-man's auto supply, and for several years, J. L. Harmon's mercantile store. The post office was also here for awhile.

The place is no longer operating as a hotel but has been converted to resident apartments.

The conversion has meant the relocation of some of the doors, otherwise the interior remains practically unaltered. Some of the original features still intact are the pressed tin ceilings, wood flooring, the staircase and balustrade and wood wainscoting in the lobby.

(8) BIEN-McNATT HOME - 208-A West 1st Street

The adobe core of this irregularly shaped one-story dwelling was put up in 1880, which makes this one of the oldest buildings in Casa Grande. The two stuccoed additions connected to the main structure on the east and west were put on at some later time.

Opal McNatt Barlow, who grew up here, tells us the place was originally owned by a couple named Wood and started out as a boarding house with two rooms and a lean-to kitchen.

It was later the residence of Ed Bien who owned a black-smith and wagon shop located just to the east of here.

Carr McNatt bought the property in 1908 and the McNatt family called this place home for over forty years.

The McNatt's long association with Casa Grande began in 1907 when Carr came here from Bowie, Texas. He worked for several years as head bartender in his brother-in-law's Gilt Edge Saloon, till prohibition put it out of business. He later put up a place of his own called the Wonder Bar, after the prohibition amendment had been repealed. Local writer, Dan Woods, has spoken of him as "one of the city's most popular residents, affectionately called 'Uncle Carr' by many of the townspeople."

The photo above, taken in 1910, shows Carr and Elizabeth McNatt and their daughter Opal, and Tom and Frances Meehan on the south veranda of this house. The McNatt family owned the property ti II 1973.

(9) MEEHAN-GAAR HOME - N. W. corner of W. 1st Street and Washington

This house was built around 1909. Opal Barlow says it was her uncle, Tom Meehan, who built it.

The Meehans had come to Casa Grande in 1903 and Tom soon became one of the Valley's most enthusiastic boosters. He had been born in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1874, and was brought to Arizona by his parents at the age of ten. For a number of years the family lived at the Silver King mine north of Florence, and on November 25, 1900, Tom married Miss Frances Coleman at the nearby mining town of Kelvin.

The young couple came to Casa Grande three years later. In 1905 Tom purchased The Gilt Edge Saloon on Main Street from his brother-in-law, B. T. Drew and operated it till the day of his death, at age 43, on the operating table following surgery in Florence, on October 1, 1914. The whole town was shocked by the news of his death; the newspaper explaining that he had been suffering from "stomach problems" for some time.

Meehan also had financial interests in the mines south of Casa Grande and was negotiating what promised to be a lucrative deal at the time of his death.

In 1920, his widow sold the house, as business property, to Fanne Gaar.

As can be seen from the above photo of this building, in 1910, the veranda, with its large square concrete slab columns and low connecting walls, is a modification of an earlier wooden veranda with slender wood posts and a shed roof not connected with the main roof. We have no record of when the change was made, possibly sometime after 1920 when the building changed hands.

Mrs. Gaar ran a real estate agency from her home here for many years.

She had come to Casa Grande as Fanne Briscoe, in 1915, in response to a promotional advertisement for the C. G. Valley in the Los Angeles newspapers.

She found work here in the city's first bank, the Casa Grande Valley Bank, and in 1917 married Earl Gaar.

She was very interested in and active in civic affairs and in 1927 was elected to serve on the city council. As the highest vote-getter for councilmen at the election that year, she was chosen mayor. It was the first time in the history of the state that Arizona had had a woman mayor. There have been women on the city council since then, but never again has Casa Grande had a woman mayor.

Mrs. Garr continued to live in this house until she died, on June 25, 1971.

(10) SITE OF THE WILSON GARAGE - S. W. corner of Sacaton and W. 1st. Street

Hugh Wilson and his two sons, Russell and C. J. (Blinky), started an auto parking and repair service on this site in 1914.

The property belonged to Gordon McMurray and the new garage was built next door to McMurray's blacksmith shop which stood on the corner of the block. McMurray (in the dark suit) is shown flanked by Russell (12) and Blinky (10) in the accompanying picture taken in 1914 while the garage was under construction. The sign for the blacksmith shop can be seen above the building on the right.

The new garage could handle 36 cars, 24 inside and 12 outside, and parking was 25 cents per night. It wasn't the only garage in town, nor the first one. Fred Powers had been operating a garage for car repairs and rentals for two years before this time.

But this site is significant for what it represents - the beginnings of a rapidly growing new industry and, ironically, the eventual demise of Casa Grande's downtown business area.

Hugh Wilson came to Casa Grande in 1907, from Pennsylvania.

It was his understanding of internal combustion engines that brought him here. He had been employed by the Westinghouse Corporation to work on the development of a gas engine as a replacement for steam, and when Westinghouse sold its engine to the Keyestone Mining Company which was interested in trying it out in its mining operations in Arizona and California, Hugh was sent out to install the equipment for them and make sure it worked. The first engine was to be set up at the Orizaba Mine south of Casa Grande.

Unfortunately, Hugh had no sooner arrived and got the platform built, than the company went broke. The engine remained for a long time in the Casa Grande freight yard. And the Wilson family's plans to go to Santa Barbara, where a similar engine was to be installed, were canceled.

Eventually the engine did get put up. And it did function well. But there was no money with which to pay Hugh for his work so the family was forced to stay at the Orizaba Mine and make a living as best they could, in this strange place so different from what they had known in Pennsylvania.

They moved into town in 1913 in order that the children, Russell and Blinky and their sister Lucille, could take advantage of the new school. Then they got into the automobile business.

"Roads were primitive then," Slinky recalls. Autos had to travel on wagon roads, or make their own road. There were frequent breakdowns since most of the cars had only five or six inch clearance.

Replacement parts could be gotten out of Phoenix, Slinky explains, but for emergency repairs you often called on the blacksmith to see what he could do. It seems it was a real advantage to have a blacksmith shop right next door.

Slinky was convinced that the Model T Fords with their 15 inch clearance were the only cars for this area and he managed to get a subfranchise for a Ford agency.

When Hugh died in 1934, Russell and Slinky took over the business. Russell eventually moved to Tucson. Slinky stayed on and enjoyed a long association with the Ford Motor Co., eventually retiring in 1980 after almost 70 years in the auto business.

The auto's impact on Casa Grande, and the rest of the nation, can hardly be overstated. As people became more mobile, the community began to spread out and businesses moved to the outskirts rather than put up with the traffic jams and other problems confronting the downtown area.

The auto had fully as great an influence on domestic architecture. Always a reflection of one's lifestyle, there is hardly a home in Casa Grande today which does not have, as its most prominent feature, a double carport or garage right near the front door.

(11) WARD'S VARIETY STORE - 112 N. Sacaton Street

This single story stuccoed adobe bUilding with its curvi-linear parapet is another example of early 20th century Mission¬style architecture in Casa Grande.

The accompanying 1920 photo shows that it was originally one of two identical commercial structures standing side by side on this site. The original business in this north bay was Homer Ward's Variety Store. I n the south bay, which has since been torn down, was Will Smith's meat market.

Ward, previous to locating here, had been associated with J. W. Hamilton in the Hamilton and Ward Store on Main Street, and had managed, for awhile, the Gin Lung grocery on Main Avenue.

He had come to Casa Grande in 1912 from California, with his father-in-law, G. W. Low, who, we are told, was "looking for a new area to pioneer."

Minnie Ward came in January 1913 with the three children, and the Wards and the Lows took up adjoining homesteads in an area near Tabletop Mountain.

As it turned out, homesteading wasn't all they had hoped it to be. I n two years the Wards, following the death of one child and the serious illness of another so far from any doctor, moved in to Casa Grande. And the Lows moved back to Cal¬ifornia.

Their two years on the homestead had brought them into contact with the Papago and Pima I ndians and Homer Ward de-veloped lasting friendships with many of them. He learned to speak both languages and bought wood and baskets and pottery from them, as well as "anything else they had to sell." Some of this he offered for resale in his store, some was shipped as far east as Kansas City and as far north as San Francisco.

Thelma Ward Winslow, in her reminiscences, remembers also the crocheted articles her mother made to sell in the store; "particularly lovely yokes to be used on Iingerie ... and yards and yards of edging for pillow cases, petticoats and the like."

In 1925, Ward opened a cleaning shop here and the bulldinq housed this business for almost fifty years before finally closing its doors in 1974.

Except for the porch across the front, with its corrugated metal roof, the building's exterior appearance has remained unchanged. It is uncertain when the other section was taken down.

As part of a commercial block containing another Mission Revival-style shop on the corner, it has made a unique architec¬tural contribution to the street -scene in this part of town.

(12) SOUVA-CRUZ HOME - 310 W. Main Street

This little gem of a house was built around 1890 by M. E. Souve, who also built The Gilt Edge Saloon on Main Street. It is a stuccoed adobe house, typical of the settlement period, but with a brick facing that is quite unique. It is the only example of a brick-faced adobe building in Casa Grande.

It was Jesse Mayhew, the second owner of this property who added the brick front - perhaps to give the building a little more distinction.

It is most unfortunate that the brick work is now starting to deteriorate. The west facade, including the window arch, has fallen away since 1980.

Jesse Mayhew was a freighter who hauled supplies to the Silver King Mine with his 24 mule team, and at one time also served as County Supervisor. In 1907 he moved to Yuma.

In 1908 Ramon Cruz bought the property and lived here with his family for almost 20 years, till 1927.

Cruz was from Mexico. He had been born near Hermosillo, Sonora and came to Arizona Territory in 1870 with his parents while still an infant. His wife was a native of Guaymas, Mexico.

They raised a large family - six boys and two girls - three of whom, Margaret, Ramon Jr. and Albert, grew up in this house. Margaret has told of the many good times that the young people enjoyed in their home here.

"Polly" Pace wrote of Ramon Sr. many years after his death in 1924, as follows: "Cruz was a strikingly handsome man, and we feel sure that many a feminine heart beat faster as he passed their way, but he was noted as being a family man. He was proud of his family and they were proud of him."

He was also a civic minded man and took an active part in community affairs. He was a member of the first elementary school board that made the decision to put up Central School. He was also largely responsible for the organization of the Casa Grande Commercial Club.

(13) BUSINESS BLOCK NO. 12 - Main Street between Sacaton and Washington

These next two blocks, east along Main Street, made up the heart of Casa Grande's business district for almost seventy five years, from the 1880's through the 1950's.

They have been the scene of repeated periods of building and renovation, destruction by fire and rebuilding again, creating a complex history of commercial and business activity in this area.

A fire in 1883, reportedly started by tramps in a livery stable, destroyed the whole of the downtown area.

By 1886, as we will see later, this first block was already well built up again.

An 1890 map, drawn the year the townsite was platted, shows in this block: three small free-standing buildings in the west half, a cluster of six buildings seemingly joined together in the eastern half. These six buildings, according to the map, housed a warehouse, general store, restaurant two saloons, and in the last building, a general store, post office and express office.

The accompanying 1906 photo shows some of these same buildings. They have been identified as the Curriel's home - first door, a warehouse - second door, Maldonado's general store (originally the W. C. Smith store) - third door, and the Tomlinson's store, Post Office and Express Office. It appears that the two saloons and restaurant may have been removed.

Later businesses here have included the Casa Grande Supply Co., Brown Commercial Co., Oasis Theater, Dykes Pool Hall, Hancock Drug Store, Cruz Trading Post Casa Grande Valley Bank, Telephone ce.. Dr. Redding's office, W. P. Clements' office, Charles Prather Express Co. and Cotton Brokerage, Mandell Clothing Store, Carr McNatt's Fountain of Youth, Fred Hubbell's realty office, Whitney's Cafe, and Breckenridge Furniture Store.

Of the 1906 buildings, only the Cruz Trading Post remains.

(14) CRUZ TRADI NG POST - 200 West Main Street

Built by Thomas Tomlinson after the 1883 fire, this is probably Casa Grande's oldest commercial building. Though best known as the Cruz Trading Post, it has housed a wide variety of businesses in its almost 100 years' existence.

It was originally a one-story rectangular adobe structure with double entries and served as a general store, post office and express office for a number of years.

Between 1897 and 1898 it housed Ben Bible's saloon and dance hall.

It continued to be used for a general store, doctor's office, telephone office, lodge meeting hall and Clements' bank till 1937 when Ramon Cruz, Jr. purchased it for his trading post.

Cruz had it remodeled into this Pueblo Revival-style building and it served as the trading post till 1955. It is now a tavern.

Cruz had learned the retail business from his father who, as a young man, had worked as a clerk in trading posts on the Gila River Indian Reservation. He had been employed at the Schulze Trading Post in Sacaton in 1900 when Jack Schulze decided to sell out and devote more time to other activities, so sold him the business.

He resold it five years later and moved to Casa Grande. When he died in 1924 he was operating a Cruz Trading Post on 1st Street and Washington, across the street from the Gaar residence.

Ramon Jr. had worked in his father's store after school and took it over when his father died. In 1946 he was joined by his brother Albert.

The brothers operated the store here on Main Street till 1955. Then they built a new drive-in liquor mart on E. 2nd Street to replace it. That same year Ramon, Jr. passed away and Albert operated the new store until his death in 1980.

(15) TOP AND BOTTOM STREET - now Washington Street

This is one of the three oldest streets in the Old Townsite (the other two are Main Street and Main Avenue) and may have started out as nothing more than a path. Traffic leaving the pas-senger side (east end) of the depot would have had to turn either right or left thus creating a road in front of the railroad station.

The accompanying photo, dated 1886, is the earliest picture we have of Casa Grande and, presumably, of Top and Bot. tom Street. .

Local legend has it that the street's name came from one or more card sharks operating in one or more saloons fronting on the street who were so dexterous in dealing out cards that the unwary could not tell whether they came from the top or the bottom of the• deck. .

Card sharks were known to travel the railroad lines and ply their trade with unsuspecting green horns wherever they could find them, so the legend could well be true.

At any rate, the street was renamed Washington by the newly organized city council in 1916, "to the relief of many who wondered how it got that name in the first place," so the paper reported.

In 1921, the former street crossing over the railroad tracks was closed, and crossings at Sacaton and Florence were opened up instead. (Sacaton Street is shown on the earliest maps, but was not opened up till the turn of the century.) In 1927, Washington Street was widened, and closed between blocks nine and sixteen where it crossed the school playground.

When the Historical Society was organized in the 1960's, one of its first activities was to put the old name back up on the signpost so that everyone would know the whereabouts of what was once one of the most prominent streets in town.

(16) SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD DEPOT - Main and Washington Intersection

This long, narrow, one-story, flat roofed depot was built in 1939 and its Art Deco or Art Moderne-style reflects the importance of railroading at that time. The style was popular during the 1920's and 1930's symbolizing "the progressiveness of commerce and industry" in this country. The name of the architect for this building is not known.

It is the only building of its kind in Casa Grande and probably the only Modern-style depot in Arizona. Its native American Art Deco motifs surrounding the side entries are unique. The exterior of the building is unchanged, but extensive remodeling has been done to the interior, unfortunately covering up an original mural of a southwestern Indian scene.

The depot was built to replace an earlier building which burned and was located several feet further west. The new depot was placed, as you can see, squarely in the middle of Washington Street, which had by now been closed.

The new depot was opened with appropriate dedication ceremonies in January 1940. Within two years our country was at war. A never to be forgotten experience in connection with that war was the unloading here of thousands of Japanese evacuees destined for the Japanese detention camps on the Pima reservation twenty miles to the north.

Although passenger service has been discontinued, a busy freight schedule still continues.

(17) SITE OF THE OLD RAILROAD STATION AND FREIGHT DEPOT - Main Street

Railroad service from the west coast to Casa Grande began May 19, 1879. In his book on Southern Arizona Railroads, David Myrick tells us that the railroad facilities here at that time "included five yard tracks and a turntable, but the railroad offices were on wheels. Pending the completion of a well, water was brought by tank car from Maricopa."

Maricopa and Casa Grande served as the points of transfer for passengers and supplies destined for more distant places in the territory. Maricopa served Phoenix and Prescott. Florence, and for almost a year Tucson, were served by Casa Grande.

Work began on the rail extension from Casa Grande to Tucson on January 14, 1880. I n the six months leading up to then, Casa Grande must have been a mighty busy place!

A new supply of railroad ties for the Tucson extension was accumulating here all that summer, Myrick writes, " ... a 20-car train of ties arrived almost every day for a time." Also, he points out "51 wagons were counted ... one hectic day during the Christmas holiday season in 1879."

But busy as it was, for some reason, Casa Grande didn't get a station house for several years. And when we did get one, it seems it was a "used" one. According to Arthur Elliott, who worked for the Southern Pacific for many years, "a new depot was built in Yuma and the old one was torn down, board by board, and freighted to Casa Grande ... " Just what year that was, we are not sure - some time before 1886.

The station was a two-story wooden building with rooms on the second floor for the station master and his family. Our maps show that at some time prior to 1909, an upstairs porch was added to the north side of the building.

Gordon T. Graves who lived here for three months in 1893 while his father was the telegraph operator, wrote his recollections of the station and the surrounding area as follows:

"There was a locust tree at the east end of the R. R. station and a few more along the street which ran at right angles to the track.

"Along the track on the south was a row of houses and a few stores ...

"Indians hung out in the shade of the stores and saloons paralleling the track on the north side.

"A t the end of the month, when the miners got their pay, they used to come into town to celebrate. We children had to keep inside ... after just so many drinks the bullets would begin to fly."

The railroad stations were the first "community centers" in most early towns. Just watching the train come in was a source of entertainment for many people. Mr. Elliott tells us "the real estate men used to come down to the R. R. depot and sit around waiting like buzzards for customers" in the days when the Casa Grande Valley was being opened up to settlers.

The old station burned in 1937 and Southern Pacific employees went back to operating out of a passenger car till the new station was built two years later.

(18) OLD PARK - along Main Avenue

At one time a double row of trees provided a shaded area here along Main Avenue which was used for picnics and public celebrations.
Two memorable celebrations were the San Carlos Day festivities commemorating the passage of the San Carlos Bill creating Coolidge Dam, and the annual 4th of July celebrations with speeches and music and races down Main Street. It did not take much to create a park in the early 1900's ¬just parking space for wagons and/or cars, and some shade. Temporary tables were created out of planks and old packing boxes. If anyone wanted something to sit on besides the ground, he brought his own.

(19) BUSI NESS BLOCK - Main Avenue between Sacaton and Washington

The block wall which now surrounds the city storage area here on Main Avenue, surrounds the sites of an early day hotel, a Chinese restaurant and Casa Grande's first Chinese grocery.

The hotel is identified on an 1890 town map as the Simcoe Hotel. In 1898 and 1909 it is shown as the Woods Hotel, and in 1914 as The Palms.

The accompanying photo, which is the best we have of this block, dates to around 1908 or 1910. The Woods Hotel appears to be in rather sad disrepair by this time.

In 1914 Mrs. Maizie Fordham bought the 10-room building, renovated it and renamed it The Palms. She ran it as a hotel for a number of years. It was lived in up until the late 1950's, then in 1964 the city tore it down. It was one of Casa Grande's oldest commercial buildings and many local residents regretted its loss.

The other three buildings which show in the picture are a real estate office, the Post Office - Judge Bennett is thought to have been postmaster at this time, and Gin Lung's grocery. Gin Lung was a friendly and compassionate grocer who went broke grubstaking prospectors.

The C. G. Hotel, which does not appear in the picture, was just past the Post Office at the end of the block.

(20) CASA GRANDE HOTEL - S. W. corner of Main and Washington

The Casa Grande Hotel, often referred to as the Gould Hotel, originated as a single-story, double-bay, commercial building put up by John Riess in the early 1890's. He used it for a butcher shop and dry goods store.

Gordon Graves, in his reminiscences, remembered the butcher shop being here in 1893. But it doesn't appear on the 1890 Sanborn map. So it must have been built sometime between 1890 and 1893. At any rate, it shares honors with the Cruz Trading Post as being one of the oldest commercial buildings in Casa Grande today.

When Riess sold the property to William Gould in 1909 it was being used as a five-room lodging house. Over the next two years, Gould added eight more rooms, all of adobe construction. Much later those first five rooms were converted to a dance and banquet hall.

It is interesting to note that when Gould got into the hotel business he was not an experienced hotel man, he was a rancher, According to "Polly" Pace, who for a time worked as a cowhand on the Jack Schulze ranch, "Gould ran cattle on the desert along with Archie Ryan, Shonessy, Elizabeth and Jack Schulze, Emiliano Robles, J. J. Kruse and others." There were no fences then and few wells, so grass was abundant and cattle roamed free.

We don't know when Gould did come to Arizona. He was born in Sacramento, on July 4, 1858, and as a young man worked herds in the Casa Grande-Florence area. In 1895 he married a Florence girl, Frances Iyala, and their marriage was blessed with two daughters, Caroline and Ella.

Caroline, who died just this year, owned this property with her husband William Courtright, till the time of her death she had lived here since she was a small child.

In 1913 Gould built a two-story concrete addition at the rear of the hotel which is now bridged to it by a third addition. What is now a living room was an alley behind the hotel extend¬ing from Washington to Sacaton Street. The additions can be seen in the accompanying photo taken in 1920 or 1921.

Caroline took over the operation of the business after her father died in 1916. First with her mother, then with her husband, she continued running the hotel until 1961.

The Courtrights built four apartments in 1931 or 1932, and the exterior of the hotel was modified with Mission Revival details at about the same time. Most of the interior features have remained the same, including the pressed tin ceilings, original light fixtures and door hardware.

From the beginning, the hotel catered to newly arriving passengers on the trains. Advertising read "We meet all trains." It was noted for its fine restaurant also, and, for twenty-seven years, from the 1930's through 1961, served monthly luncheons to the Lions, Jaycees and Rotary Clubs of Casa Grande.

(21) SITE OF JIM MEGSON HOME - N. W. corner of W. 2nd Avenue and S. Washington

The interesting thing about this site is the way in which the former Megson house, shown in the picture above, has been incorporated into the Jack Foster home and Cole and Maud Mortuary Chapel.

James Megson was a freighter, carrying loads between Casa Grande and the various mines in the area.

He was also the town constable between 1902 and 1904. The jail was located directly south of the Megson home, past the end of Washington Street, toward South School.

Arthur Elliott used to tell a story about the old jail that occurred one night in 1910, when Haley's comet was scheduled to appear and was expected to bring about the end of the world. A superstitious Mexican man asked the sheriff to lock him up in jail so he would be safe. Ironically, the only disastrous thing that happened in Casa Grande that night was that somehow the jail caught fire and burned down, with him in it.

According to Elliott, after the jail burned, prisoners were chained to a log until other arrangements could be made for their custody.

A new concrete jail was built in 1912 - "fully equipped in every respect" is how it was reported in the Casa Grande Times.

(22) WALKER•ARMENTA HOUSE - 210 S. Washington, be¬tween 1st and 2nd Avenues

This is no doubt one of the oldest houses in Casa Grande. It is believed to have been built by Judge J. D. Walker in the late 1870's or early 1880's. Walker was Probate Judge for Pinal County and co-owner of the Vekol Mine between 1880 and 1891.

The house appears to have been built in three distinct construction phases extending over a period of years. It started out as a small, two-room dwelling with 18" thick walls and a flat roof.

Later it became a two-story building with the addition of a second floor and a two-level veranda extending across the front. It is one of very few two-story adobe houses still remaining in Arizona.

The outside wood stairway, framed with wood paneling, provides access to the second story. The stairway and railing along the upper veranda, with its square banisters and simple balus-trade, are all original. In fact, few modifications have been made to this part of the house over the years other than adding new openings, partitioning off the south end of the upper veranda to make a small room, and replacing the lower deck with concrete.

The size of the house was substantially increased in the third construction phase with the addition of several rooms on the back. We don't know the construction date of any of the three phases.

J. A. Armenta bought the house in 1907. He may have put the addition on the back. He and his wife, Concepcion, had a large family of seven children, and this was their home till 1922 when Jose and Concepcion were divorced.

The present owner, Ruth Miller, is the daughter-in-law of Armenta's second wife, Fannie. Mrs. Miller lived here until recently, when she put the property up for sale.

The south wall has fallen since the building was vacated.

(23) SHONESSY BUILDING - S. E. corner of Washington and Main Avenue

This two-story 24' by 60' commercial building was probably the first two-story reinforced cast-in-place concrete building in Casa Grande. It was built in 1913 by William Shonessy and has not changed in outside appearance or been modified in any way since.

Inside, original features include pressed tin ceilings, woodwork and floors.

When constructed, the building was intended for a store, with offices above. Outside wooden stairs on the east side lead to the second story.

Over the years, space in the upper floor was leased to a variety of occupants including: Dr. Edward Gungle, one of Casa Grande's first doctors, Dr. J. J. Fleming and John Edwards - dentists, Burgess Real Estate, Woods and Wyatt Realty, Miller and Co. Realty, the Casa Grande Farmers Association, and the Casa Grande Board of Trade. The first bank in Casa Grande, Casa Grande Valley Bank, managed by S. P. Morgan, was opened here in 1914.

In 1927, Don Chun Wo, a Chinese merchant from Tucson, opened a grocery on the first floor, known as Den's Mercantile. The upstairs was made into apartments and Mr. Don acted as rental agent.

Don Chun Wo was a successful merchant in Tucson for thirty-two years before coming to Casa Grande. He was born in San Francisco, the son of an exporter-importer who owned a jewelry shop there. He came to Arizona in 1895.

He was a highly respected businessman and active in com-munity affairs, both in Tucson and in Casa Grande. He continued in business here, leasing the building from S. P. Morgan till 1943 when he retired.

From 1945 to 1948, the V. L. Bonebrake family lived in the apartments and had a new and used furniture store and gun shop in the area below.

The building has been vacant now for a number of years.

(24) SHONESSY HOUSE - 115 W. Main Avenue

Rancher-businessman, William Shonessy arrived in Casa Grande around 1900, at age sixty-five.

The accompanying photo shows him with friend, Dave Cummings (left), at the gate of the single-story, rectangular adobe building he lived in here on Main Avenue for many years.

This house, which retains its original configuration except of a shed-roofed addition on the back and the enclosure of a rear screened porch, was built some time before 1890 and is considered an outstanding example of Casa Grande's settlement period homes.

It was once the home of W. C. Smith who owned one of the first stores on Main Street during the 1880's.

When Shonessy owned the property he built the crudely constructed concrete commercial building next door which was the first of several buildings to be put up by this construction method in the next few years. Shonessy left Casa Grande for California for health reasons in 1919, and died there in 1922.

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Fisher lived here for awhile in the 1920's and used the back porch for a mortuary. Harry was killed crossing the railroad tracks coming home one day.

His wife handled the burial arrangements. She later married Bill Plenz and had a mortuary on the corner of N. Olive and 8th Street.

Between 1933 and 1943, the Don Chun Wo family lived here and operated the store and rental apartments next door. Warren Don remembers the family made an evaporative cooler out of excelsior to fit in front of a fan in one of the windows, while he lived here.

The house has been well maintained throughout its long life.

(25) JOHN LOSS HOUSE - 107 Main Avenue

It is not known who built this house. John Loss was an early owner. He was a Wells Fargo agent and had an office in the southeast corner of the old depot. He was also involved in mining activities, and the records show he was appointed postmaster for Casa Grande in 1902.

The Tom Meehan's also lived here for awhile. The accompanying photo was taken while they occupied the house, showing Frances Meehan standing in the yard.

The house lacks ornamentation, though the photo shows shutters flanking the window on the front. A single-story rectangular addition has been attached to the rear of the one and one-half story original section. A low stuccoed masonry wall has replaced the attractive picket fence along the front and the side.

(26) TOMLINSON HOME - S. W. corner of Main Avenue and S. Florence

This house, now in ruins, may have been built by Tom Tom-linson who built and operated the general store on Main Street and Washington which later became the Cruz Trading Post.

It is said that Tomlinson was hard of hearing and he too was killed by a train one day when carelessly crossing the railroad tracks.

Later residents of this house were two unrelated Elliott families - William and Hulda Elliott and Arthur and Tessie Elliott. It was also, at one time, used by Judge Jaynes as an office.

The building is presently owned by Arthur Elliott, Jr.. who has been gradually taking it down. It has not been lived in for a number of years.

(27) SITE OF FIRST PROTESTANT CHURCH - S. W. corner of S. Florence and 1st Avenue

A two-room wood frame building was constructed here on this site in 1896 to house the first, and for many years the only, Protestant Church in Casa Grande. (A small adobe church on East 1st Street served the Catholic population.)

This Protestant Church, known at first as the Endeavor Church, was organized in 1894 when the resident population was said to be about three hundred and fifty people. It evolved into

the First Presbyterian Church of Casa Grande, with a resident minister, as the town's population grew. Tent houses were erected next to the church for the minister and the Sunday School.

The Little White Church, as it was affectionately called, was used for about thirty years till replaced in the 1920's by the rock church on Florence Boulevard (the first stop on our tour).

The building is still standing, somewhere, here on the south side of town. It has been moved at least twice since the church sold the property.

(28) ELLIOTT PARK - between 1st and 2nd Avenues on Florence

This park honors members of two pioneer families - the Elliotts and the Phillips.

It is on the site that was originally set aside as a school block when the south side of the townsite was surveyed. An old adobe school stood at one time in the area that is now the N. E. corner of the park. (A wood frame school building has been incorporated into a dwelling just east of the park.)

Arthur H. Elliott homesteaded this area in 1879. He came to Casa Grande from San Francisco and served as the first telegrapher for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

He took an active interest in the development of the Casa Grande Valley and is said to have given away land to anyone who would build on it. He was especially interested in the mines in the area and in 1885 published a promotional newspaper he called "The Voice of Arizona," which was largely devoted to extolling the virtues of the region.

The Elliott's had five children - Arthur L. (1883-1973), Alfred (1885-1955), William (1888-1961), Mary (1890-?) and Henry. Arthur was the first child of Anglo parents born in Casa Grande. He was also the only one of the family to stay in Casa Grande.

Like his father, Arthur worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad as a telegrapher and cashier, from 1904 to 1934. Later he worked as a ginning clerk for Western Cotton Co., until his retirement in 1963. He served as a Notary Public, and also held a special deputy's commission.

He married Tessie Phillips on December 22, 1912. When she died in 1967 they had been married fifty-five years. The park was dedicated in their honor on their 50th wedding anniversary.

'The Phillips had come to Arizona in 1894 from Woods, North Dakota with Tessie's grandparents, the William Weavers. They homesteaded in Arizola and the five children all went to school there. In 1905 they moved into Casa Grande and Arthur and Tessie met at the Sunday School which was held in the adobe school house.

Before they were married, Arthur and Tessie used to attend dances at Ben Bible Hall on Main Street. They "danced till midnight, then the hat was passed to take up a collection for the violin and guitar players," Tessie recalled in an interview some years later.

Arthur died at age ninety in 1973 and is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery on Peart Road. Survivors include Arthur L. Elliott, Jr., of Casa Grande, and two daughters, Bertha and Pauline.

(29) BUSINESS BLOCK - between Florence and Washington Streets on Main Street

As you see, many of Casa Grande's early buildings have been destroyed by fire. But when old timers get together and talk about THE FIRE, it is the 1914 fire on this block. It occurred on April 28, 1914.

The blaze started in Gus Kratzka's bakery and before it burned itself out it had wiped out the whole west end of the block. Five buildings were burned, eight businesses destroyed the Berlin Bakery and Restaurant, McNatt's Barbershop, Ward Davies Drug Store, Whitting's Pool Room, Valley Land Co. office, The Gilt Edge Saloon, George Bennett's Meat Market, and a second hand furniture store.

The fire was discovered at 1 :00 P.M., and all afternoon men and women and children fought the blaze, forming a bucket brigade to bring water from the Southern Pacific well.

Only Jose Armenta's iron-roofed adobe general merchandise store just east of the bakery was saved, unharmed except for a scorched west wall. However, most of the merchandise inside was lost.

Fortunately, most of those involved had some insurance. They immediately started making plans to rebuild.

One interesting thing about this site is that you can practically read the story of what happened next in the debris along the edge of the sidewalk as you walk west from the ruins of the Berlin Bakery to Washington Street.

The old Berlin Bakery and Restaurant had been on property owned by Mrs. Annis of California. She sold the property to the Kratzkas and they put up a new two-story concrete building, half of which is still standing. By May 30th, the bakery was already operating again.

Jose Armenta owned the two buildings next door which housed the barbershop and drug store, the pool hall and the Valley Land Co. office. These were both new buildings, put up in 1912 and 1913.

By May 8th, he had received his insurance settlement and contractor A. Fricke started construction of a new cast-in place concrete building to replace the two that were lost. The new Armenta building shared one wall with the new Kratzka building.

Also that month, a new two-story concrete building was al-ready being started by Wilson and Siosser to replace The Gilt Edge.

Meehan, Davies and Whitting moved into the new Casa Grande Supply Co. store in the next block while the new buildings were under construction. It is interesting to note that it was the Casa Grande Supply Co. that set the standard for new construction. It had plate glass windows, the first ones in Casa Grande. Now all of the new buildings were getting up-to-date plate glass fronts.

George Bennett had taken a five-year lease just the year before on the Laura Kramer property he was using for his meat market. Immediately after the fire, Mrs. Kramer, now Mrs. Charles Randall, announced she would put up a new one-story building on the corner of Washington and Main. A contract was let to Wilson and Siosser for a 47' x 40' structure, made of adobe with cement outside finish and plaster interior, to house the meat market on one side, a furniture store on the other.

ln June the paper reported that seventy-five men were at work on the Main Street buildings. George Bennett reopened his meat market on July lst, On Friday, July 3rd, The Gilt Edge opened its doors, with a reception for 200. "The interior is quite handsome" reportee one of the papers, pointing out that the "bar and sideboard are elegant pieces of furniture."

The new Gilt Edge enjoyed a short-lived glory. Three months later Tom Meehan was dead, and on the last day of Dec- ember Prohibition closed for good the doors of one of Casa Grande's oldest businesses which had started on this site in 1897.

Mrs. M. M. Fordham bought and remodeled the Meehan building and started the Owl Cafe and Rooming-house here in 1915. The elegant cherry wood bar remained in the Owl Cafe until the 1930's, then was moved to the Baseline Tavern west of Chandler. The rooming-house ended a long and useful life in the late 1950's as rental sleeping quarters for migrant workers.

Jose Armenta moved from his old store into his new building in September. It was 86' x 30' in size and called "the finest store building in town." The other half of the building was a pool hall (identified by the name "Jack's Place" in the sidewalk.) Nell Rimol Gotcher recalled that she and her husband Jack Rimol owned it during the 1940's. Jack operated the pool hall and tavern on the first floor, rented out cots for 50 cents per night on the second floor, as did later owners Fred and Nora Parsons. The pictures on pages 47 and 49 show the history of these changes.

(30) BERLIN BAKERY - Main Street

This is the last remaining example of the commercial buildings that lined this block after the 1914 fire.

It is constructed of cast-in-place concrete and distinguished by a rusticated concrete block facing on the main facade. The taller two-story addition at the rear was not part of the original building. A third addition, attached to the second, has been removed as well as the entire west half of the building.

The Kratzkas had built the original Berlin Bakery and Restaurant on this site in 1912. While they ran it, the bakery was famous for its wide variety of breads, particularly a "cream loaf" which was shipped all over the country.

The business was sold in November 1928 to E. R. Hess and his son-in-law, W. A. Gray, and the bakery operated for some time under the name Valley Bakery.

Later the Pine Hotel was located here.

It was a fire in the Pine Hotel, in which a man was burned to death in the 1960's, that finally tolled the death knoll for Main Street.

Traffic was rerouted to 2nd Street, and most of the Main Street buildings were torn down in a city-backed clean up campaign.

(31) TEE-PEE TRADI NG POST - 114 W. Main Street

This one-story building is distinguished by its unique para-pet design. Our picture shows that it was once connected to an adjacent building which had a similar design. Also a shed roofed wooden arcade extended across the front of both buildings.

We are not sure who built it or the date of its construction.

It is on the site of the old Peart and Armenta (later the A. J. Armenta) General Merchandise Store, built in 1907, and may be the same building. Or, it may have replaced that store sometime after the 1914 fire when Armenta moved the undamaged stock from here into his new building west of the Kratzka building.

In June 1914 it was reported that Robert Andrade was in-stalling a butcher shop in one of the old Armenta store rooms. Later occupants of the property were the Don Prettyman and Ramon Andrade food market, Briggs' Jewelry Store and Bill Bowser's Indian store which he called the Tee-Pee Trading Post.

The property is presently part of the Bowser estate.

(32) BERLIN BAKERY - Main Street

This rock warehouse was built in 1922 by Mike Sullivan for the Pioneer Market. The single-story building has an underground basement and a flat metal roof topped with three feet of earth which in turn is topped with another metal roof, providing excellent insulation against Arizona's summer sun. It was considered the best and coolest warehouse in town.

It is owned by Charles San Filippo who, with Gene Smith, ran the Pioneer Market.

(33) PIONEER MARKET - 119 Florence Street

Built in 1922, this double bay building (shown at left with -e 'ne of cars in front, in this 1926 photo of Florence Street) is an example of the brick commercial architecture in Casa Grande.

Between 1931 and 1957, the north bay (now Bob's Furniture Store) was occupied by the Pioneer Market, one of Casa Grande's most popular grocery stores. The south bay at one time housed a bank. The vault and tellers’ cages are still there.

The building is relatively unchanged and many original features remain intact including pressed tin ceilings and wood floors. According to Dan Woods, the Pioneer Market was started n 1926 on Main Street, next to what is now the Tee-Pee Trading Post, by K. W. Ingram. He sold meat and groceries; the meat he bought on the hoof" from local farmers.

Charlie San Filippo joined the Pioneer Market as a butcher, and Gene Smith as manager of the grocery department around 1927. Both young men bought out Mr. Ingram in 1931 and moved the store to the Florence Street location. For years they made trips to Phoenix, to the open air market on Jefferson Street, three days a week, for their produce.

After thirty years, they finally closed down the store, when parking and competition with larger chain stores became a problem.

(34) DON MARKET - N. E. corner of Florence and 1st Streets

The Don Market was started in 1897 by Don Sing, grand-father of the present owners. Don Sing came to the United States from China in the 1880's. He learned the retail business in Tucson, then purchased a store in Casa Grande from Jack Yep. It was located just east of where the present Don Market now stands, facing 1st Street. It became the Don Sing & Co. Store.

Don Sing's son, Don June, came to the United States in 1911 to join his father in the business. But first he also went to Tucson to learn merchandising in the Chinese stores there, some run by relatives.

He was still young when he moved here to Casa Grande. He enrolled in Central School, attending classes in the daytime and working in the store evenings.

The market was rebuilt, in its present location, in 1914. Five years later, Don June went back to China seeking a wife, and upon his return took up residence in the old store building where his nine children were born.

All the children worked in the store, learning the trade from the ground up. All learned to speak several languages fluently, as did their father, who had a good command of Papago and Pima, Spanish and English, as well as his native Chinese. Don Sing returned to China and died there in 1921. When Don June died in 1964, two of his sons, Franklin and Cleve, continued to operate the market, now in its eighty-sixth year. It is Casa Grande's oldest business.

(35) SITE OF THE STILES HOME - near N. W. corner of Marshall and 1st Street

On Saturday, September 9, 1899, Billy Stiles and Matt Burts held up a Wells Fargo guard on a Southern Pacific train halted a few miles out of Willcox, Arizona and made off with $80,000 worth of newly minted gold coins intended for the army payroll in the Philippines.

It was almost a perfect crime, masterminded by Burt Alvord, town constable of Willcox, who had deputized his partners so that, as lawmen, they were turned to for help by the investigators and thus were able to keep abreast of the progress of the investigation.

They might have gotten away with it, if one of the partners hadn't become careless and started spending his new gold coins.

Billy, along with the others, was arrested; then escaped from jail and felt safe enough to come back here to Casa Grande for a visit with friends and relatives.

Donna Sherrill has written of him that "people here remembered Billy Stiles as a jovial person ... kind and good to his family and friends." "Whatever people thought of him then, or think about him now," she said, "Billy Stiles will probably remain a most controversial figure in the annals of Casa Grande history."

For most of his adult life he was a law enforcement officer. He served as a Wells Fargo guard, and at the time of his death some years later, was working as a deputy sheriff in Nevada. Donna felt he was not much different from others, made famous in western lore, who worked on both sides of the law. He was "a product of his time," much like the businessmen or government workers of today who take advantage of "inside information" to make a little something for themselves, on the side.

We have Donna to thank for these bits of information about the Stiles family.

They came to Casa Grande from Florence, sometime during the early 1880's. Billy was the youngest of four children - two brothers, Ben and Grant, and a sister Mattie.

Relatives say that while the family was living in Florence a gun carelessly handled by one of the young sons accidentally discharged and killed the father.

Here in Casa Grande they lived on 1st Street, just east of the Don Market, shown in the picture above, dated 1926. The children attended the adobe school, south of the railroad tracks, and the whole family joined in the social life of the community. We are told of many gay events being held in their home. Old timers' recollections reveal that Minerva Stiles (Billy's mother) and Mrs. Jere Fryer (Pauline Cushman) were usually the hostesses of any get-togethers.

Mattie married and went to live in Mexico. Ben, Grant and Billy married and established homes here in Casa Grande. The mother lived to be quite elderly. She had been born in Arkansas on July 19, 1829 and died in Casa Grande June 22, 1923, just a few days before her 94th birthday. She is buried in Mt. View Cemetery.

In the early 1900's, Billy and his wife Maria and the little orphan girl they had adopted, moved to Nevada where Billy, using just his first and middle names - William Larkin - became a deputy sheriff. He was shot and killed in line of duty near the town of Ryolite.

(36) PARAMOUNT THEATER - 418 N. Florence Street

The Paramount was built in 1929 by Harry Nace Theaters of Phoenix, and at that time was considered as modern and fine a theater as money could buy.

It is a Spanish Colonial Revival-style building on a concrete foundation, has a flat roof and an imposing stucco facade flanked with symmetrical corner towers topped with red clay tiles. Theaters in Winslow and Mesa, built at the same time, have the same design.

H. S. Gilbert of Phoenix was superintendant of the building project and local laborers and tradesmen did the construction work which took six months.

The theater opened on December 23, 1929 - "Casa Grande's first talking theater," with a seating capacity of 550 people. Tickets were sold for reserved seats for the first movie, "The Trespasser," starring Gloria Swanson. In addition to the movie, that opening night, there were speeches by Mayor Peck and the President of the Chamber of Commerce, and a hometown vaudeville show declared by those witnessing it to be "as' good as or better than dance acts in the finest houses."

In 1930, Bank Night was introduced to the theater audience, to be held every Thursday night. The Casa Grande Dispatch suggested that "Mr. Cox (W. E. Cox was manager) is to be congratulated in offering this feature which is usually found only in the larger metropolitan theaters." The theater has been remodeled twice, in 1942 and 1967, and has been in continuous operation for over fifty years.

(37) SITE OF THE AI ROOME - S. W. corner of Florence and 4th Streets

A news story dated June 20, 1913 announced that "w. Ward Davies of Cananea, Mexico, plans to build an Airdome in Casa Grande, three blocks northeast of the depot, to be used for roller skating, movies and dancing."

The name would indicate this was intended to be an open air arena, but evidently that idea didn't last very long. A follow up story on July 18, mentioned that the Airdome now had a roof, and on November 28 it was reported that the Airdome was "made into a closed building with a canvas side that can be raised and lowered."

It was a large building, 50' x 125', and bordered Florence Street facing north. A stage was at the south end. It had its own generator for lights and for power for showing movies, and its own well.

The new recreation center proved to be very popular and evidently filled a real need in the town. Not only was it used for "roller-skating, movies and dancing," but for many other activities as well over the years. Concerts were held here, also boxing exhibitions, vaudeville shows, plays, local talent shows, a farewell party for soldiers leaving for the battlefields of World War I, lectures and recitals. The Masonic Lodge was organized here in 1913 and the Casa Grande Brass Band in 1916. For awhile, in 1913, until Central School was completed, classes were taught here. And in 1919, weekly Sunday meetings of the Christian Scientists were being held here.

In 1914, the Airdome was sold to William Lee, "for 160 acres of undeveloped patented land." In 1915 it was leased to J. A. McCondra. Sometime in the 1920's it closed, and was replaced by the B & L Garage.

The accompanying picture shows Florence Street in 1915 with the tin-roofed Airdome at the far right. The house next to it was that of Bud Bottriel (brought from Arizola by mule team). Pete Guerrero has recalled that Bud and Louis Hammer ran the theater for awhile, later converted it to a garage. The house is believed to have been the first location of Ochoa's restaurant.

The site of the Airdome is now the location of the Bell Telephone Company office.