Here is a list I have compiled of 11 historic houses in the great state of Arizona.
11. Douglas Mansion
Year Built: 1916
Address: 100 Douglas Road, Jerome, AZ 86331
Style: Mission Revival
10. Riordan Mansion
The Riordan Mansion is an excellent showcase of Arts and Crafts architecture and is now protected as a State Historic Park. The home was designed by Charles Whittlesey - the same fellow who built the El Tovar Lodge at the Grand Canyon. Tours are available.
Year Built: 1904
Address: 409 West Riordan Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Style: Arts and Crafts
9. Norton House
Dr. Norton became the president of the United States Sanitary Livestock Association in 1904, president of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce in 1916, and was also president of the Arizona Farm Bureau. He was also involved in the YMCA, the Phoenix Rotary Club, and was a member of the First Presbryterian Church for nearly 60 years.
The City of Phoenix purchased Norton's land and house in 1935, which is now part of Encanto Park. The house is now an office for the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department.
Year Built: 1912
Address: 2700 N.15th Ave, Phoenix, AZ
Style: Mission Revival with Georgian windows
8. Evans House
This remarkable house was built in 1893 by Dr. John M. Evans, a local physician. This Queen Anne Victorian is a rare find in Arizona. The property was restored in 1988 and is one of a precious few examples that remain of Phoenix's frontier days.
Year Built: 1893
Address: 1108 W. Washington St, Phoenix, AZ 85007
Style: Queen Anne Victorian
7. Sahuaro Ranch
This massive ranch was built in Arizona's territorial days by two brothers from Peoria, Illinois. William Henry Bartlett and his brother Samuel Colcord Bartlett came out west under the Homestead Act and started a 640-acre ranch that grew figs, orchard fruits, a vineyard, and loads of alfalfa. Their very successful enterprise made the brothers and their family a lot of money, though they never lived at the ranch full time. It is preserved today as a historic museum within an 80-acre city park.
Year Built: 1895 (Main House)
Address: 9802 N 59th Ave., Glendale, AZ 85302
Style: Ranch Style with Italianate features
6. Manistee Ranch
Located in Glendale, Arizona, this unique home has a rich and interesting history going back more than a century. In 1897, a lumberman from Wisconsin by the name of Herbert W. Hamilton bought a 320 acre ranch and moved his family to the Salt River Valley into this three-story basement home. Hamilton and his family moved again in 1903, this time to California to get into cattle ranching and land speculation.
In 1907 the Hamiltons sold the ranch to another lumberman, Louis Sands, a Swedish emigrant who moved to Arizona from Michigan. The Sands family gave Manistee Ranch its name and owned it until 1996 when it was purchased by the Glendale Historical Society. They planted 11 different species of palm trees, including date palms which they sold for 25 cents a pound. Public tours are available.
Year Built: 1897
Address: 5127 West Northern Ave., Glendale, AZ 85301
Style: Late Queen Anne Revival
5. Rosson House
Year Built: 1892-1895
Address: 113 N 6th St, Phoenix, AZ 85004
Style: Queen Anne Victorian with Eastlake features
4. Camelback Castle / Copenhaver Castle
This uniquely styled house was the dream of Dr. Mort Copenhaver, a local dentist. Clinging to the side of Camelback Mountain, it is made of stone and looks like a Moorish castle from Europe.
Dr. Copenhaver began building his 7,800 square foot castle in 1967 and worked on it until 1977. It features 5 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, and an indoor 20-person hot tub beneath a retractable roof. The home's other amenities include four fireplaces, ten balconies, a billiard room, and a helicopter landing pad on the roof. There are rumored to be secret passageways and even a dungeon!
By 1987, Dr. Copenhaver's lost the home due to bankruptcy. A friend of his, Jerry Mitchell, bought the home in 1989 for $985,000. The home changed hands several more times, selling again in 1994, 2003, 2005, and again in 2012 for $1.45 million. It was listed for sale (unsuccessfully) in 2009 and 2010. The home can easily be seen from public hiking trails on Camelback Mountain.
Year Built: 1977
Address: 5050 E. Red Rock Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85018
Style: Moorish Castle
3. Wrigley Mansion
Known as "La Colina Solana" (the sunny hill), the 16,000 square foot home features 24 rooms, 12 bathrooms, 11 fireplaces, a hand-painted ceiling with gold inlays, and a switchboard room. The 6-car garage has been converted into a meeting room.
The home also contains a custom Steinway player piano, one of only two in existence (the other one is in the Smithsonian). It is notable for not having a swimming pool.
The home was later purchased by Geordie Hormel (heir to the Hormel fortune) in 1992 and operates as a restaurant and private club due to zoning restrictions. Public tours and dining are available.
Year Built: 1929-1931
Address: 2501 E Telawa Trail, Phoenix, AZ 85016
Style: Mission Revival
2. Mystery Castle
The story of Phoenix's Mystery Castle is like something out of a fairy tale. Sometime around 1930, Boyce Luther Gulley of Seattle learned he will ill with tuberculosis. Not wanting to burden his family with his inevitable decline, Gulley abandoned them and moved out to Phoenix.
He set about building a home for his daughter to live in from whatever scraps of building material he could muster. Gulley ended up living another 15 years, during which time he had built a 3-story, 8,000 square foot castle. It features 18 rooms, 13 fireplaces, and ingenious features such as fold-away tables.
His daughter Mary Lou learned of the house when Gulley died in 1945. She lived there until her death in 2010. Today, this very unique property is run as a non-profit and tours are available seasonally.
Year Built: 1930-1935
Address: 800 E Mineral Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85040
Style: Eclectic Castle
1. McCune Mansion/Hormel Mansion
While it's not the oldest house in Arizona, the McCune Mansion (or Hormel Mansion) is by far the largest and most magnificent.
This extravagant mansion sits atop Sugar Loaf Mountain in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Sources on the home's facts vary, but here's what we do know.
The Maricopa County Assessor's Office and the Chicago Tribune both report the house's construction date as 1963, though a People Magazine article that states the house was built in 1965. The County Assessor's website indicates that an expansion/remodel was done in 1970.
The home was built by either a Walter McCune or Walker McCune (spellings of his first name are not consistent). I believe I read that he was heir to the Pennzoil fortune.
The home is of unparalleled size and grandeur in Arizona. At 52,800 square feet and 3 stories, it is not only the largest private residence in Arizona, it is the 12th largest home in America by square footage.
The 90 room mansion sits on a 6-acre lot and features:
- 16 Bedrooms
- 25 Bathrooms
- 6 Dining Rooms
- 6 Kitchens
- Tennis Court
- Racquetball Court
- Exercise Room
- 14-car Garage with Gas Station
- 150-seat Theatre Room
- Olympic-size swimming pool with waterfall
- Ice Rink
- Bowling Alley
- Panoramic Views
In 1991, Geordie Hormel bought the home for $3,750,000. Geordie let a bunch of his friends live in the main house while he lived in the guest house until his death in 2006 at age 77.
In 2010, the house was listed for sale at $15,000,000. It was on the market for almost a year when the listing was removed in 2011. In July of 2013, the house went on sale again for $10,000,000. It is still for sale at the time of this posting.
Year Built: 1963
Address: 6112 N Paradise View Drive, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253
Style: unknown
Author's note: I did not include Frank Llloyd Wright's Taliesin West on here because its primary purpose was a school, not a private residence.
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6 comments:
growing up in the 60's our family rented the " Higgins" house or the "proctor" house in Globe Az. I believe Mr. Higgins was in politics? the Proctor house was of the Proctor & Gamble families. any info or address I cannot find. wanted to revisit. thank you for this post !
I believe more info on mccune house in AZ could be found in southern California . I went to school with his adopted son Lance McCune in the late 1960,s. Also dated his adopted daughter Michelle in 1970.. There were two more adopted kids but didn't know them. I remember that the dad died, the mom had problems spending a ton of money at the Del Mar race track. Also remember reading that the kids were being ripped off by I believe the bank trust and that was bought to light around 1980. I believe Lance still lives in s. Calif..... Very fond memories of Lance and Michelle ..... .Randy
What school did you go to with my brother and sister?
Paige
Paige, please contact me regarding Brent sreed@hhnow.org
My ex-wife owns a historic home in Glendale originally built in 1890s by a business man who actually brought water To phoenix and surrounding areas buy building canals for agriculture and daily use for development and the growth of Arizona I'm very jealous of her her purchase. Her home speaks to you as you enter the home has a friendly soul "only sad part" when it was remodeled in 2018 and the owner at that time had to be a none native of AZ and none American because they took away so much detail of the past for a modern look which is so disappointing because Arizona has a billion homes that display modern features like vinyl flooring, drywall, hollow doors cookie cutter features that home is like an old 1952 Cadillac you don't remove the engine and replace it with a electric motor or remove body panels and replace it with plastic planes or remove all the chrome no you keep it and make new again because you don't see beauty like that and when you do see something built so long ago your eyes and soul respects the past and wows you. I try so hard to reintroduce historic items to her home but I'm the ex husband and you guessed it my ideas are bad and stupid even thou I have 20+ years in restoration basically anything I find at the Goodwill or in the trash like a telescope from the 1700s to a door lock from the 1600s or just a 1930 record player seeing items like that it's like time travel. There should be a committee created to protect our history that has survived decades from humans who don't appreciate the struggle it has travel threw the roller coaster of life. Updating, renovation is not for everyone especially if green is the only color you see. I would rather see a poor home owner own a property like that than a person with money because the property would stay intact.or let a 44yr old bored handyman like myself come along with caulking and a wire brush, roll of Flux, soldier, 5 in 1 and a can of wD40 and beautifies a time machine........ house is at 5919 W Myrtle read the history can't wait for the ex to go on a long vacation so I search for the original underground food ceiler with my metal detector and Ouija board joking ok time to get off the toilet lol if anyone is interested in my skills I am cheap labor I just require Beatles and beegees music carna asada burrito coffee and lots of your none input but lots of your final color section And historic vision 602-545-2669 Marco "Polo"
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