AJ, AZ - An Unappreciated Museum and the 'A' Hill

Time for a museum and we chose the Arizona Historical Society Museum of History in Tempe. In fact we made it a Tempe day:

        the museum

        the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

        the City Hall built as an upside pyramid to conserve energy

        and a walk around the city ‘lake’ actually a dammed up portion of the local river.

Breakfast first at the Liberty Market, an upscale deli with breakfast. At the cash register was this display - when was the last time you saw these gums?

Very good breakfast: the onions in the potatoes were caramelized, the vegetables in the scrambled eggs were grilled and the cinnamon rolls were as big as a plate. No, we did not have one but it sure looked tempting.

When we got there, the museum was practically empty and this didn’t change for the whole time we were there. A very under appreciated museum - with no reason. It was a very good museum covering the history of Arizona. We noticed several themes, the need for water, the 5 C’s of Arizona’s history (citrus, cotton, climate, cattle and copper) and the growth of Arizona after and because of WWII.

Here’s a viewing casket from the 1800’s. Note the metal tray for the ice (it’s a hot climate) and the opening for the face of the deceased.

And, this tractor for use in the desert.

Arizona was used extensively for training prior to WWII. In fact unexploded munitions from bombing training can still be found on the desert in the bombing ranges. General Patton built a large training facility south of Joshua National Park which we visited several years ago. This brought thousands of young men who enjoyed the climate and came back after the war. Here’s a chart of the growth of Phoenix - note how it increases after WWII.

After Pearl Harbor, we were terribly afraid that the Japanese would attach us on the Pacific coast and so we drew a line down the middle of Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona. On the Pacific side of this line, the Japanese were forced to evacuate: sell their homes and businesses (at fire sale prices, of course), pack their suitcases and move to the east side of the line into concentration camps built for them. The line went right through the center of Phoenix: those on the north side of the line could stay in their homes but those on the south side were evacuated to camps - on the north side. But, even those who stayed: some worked on the south side and others had businesses on the south side. The could not cross. It was a mess.

Here’s a hatch cover of the battleship Arizona sunk by the Japanese in Pearl Harbor. This is the only piece of the ship not in the Memorial in Hawaii.

And, why was no one in the museum? We don’t know, it was a good museum.

We found a park near the Tempe ‘Lake’ on the map and though we’d eat lunch there. However, finding it on the map and finding it in the car are two different things. Seems that the Phoenix Ironman competition is on Sunday and they’ve got streets blocked off, making it difficult to maneuver around this area. We finally found a place to park, ate our lunch and then walked around this area. It was about 1/2 mile from the University of Arizona and the shops showed this: lots of food, food, and food. Lots of food. Guess what we found? An ice cream shop. Of course we’ve got our IPhone programmed for ice cream.

Since the town hall is near here, we walked over to it. It is built as inverted pyramid with walls at a 45 degree slope to conserve energy. Sunlight cannot penetrate the windows as much as if the building were straight up and down. (Note the large yellow ‘A’ on the hill behind the city hall for the University of Arizona. I’ll mention that later in the blog.)

The Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright - to be an opera house in Iraq. However that fell through so he had this neat extra design in 1957 when a friend of his, Gammage who was the President of ASU, called asking him to design a distinct university auditorium. ‘Hey, Grady, I’ve got just the design.’ Wright found a location on campus and altered his Iraqi design a bit to be the new auditorium. it was circular and had distinctive ramps coming out from each side as if arms saying ‘Welcome to ASU.

Neither Wright nor Gammage lived long enough to see the finished building. One of Wright’s most trusted aide finished the design. It’s 80’ high, and the ramp / bridges extend 200’ like welcoming arms.

They must have known that golf would be a ‘driving’ force in the growth of Phoenix and - look, golf balls in the design. Probably not but it’s a cute image.

Finally, it’s time to head home - oops, what about he ‘A’ hill? This is a short, nearly vertical hill, near the campus used by all in the neighborhood for exercise. Well, sure - a challenge. And, talk about 45 degree sides - this looks like 45 degrees too. We met a local high school track team using it for practice.

And, this woman is walking up the slope backwards.

But there were great views from the top, we could even see downtown Phoenix. (Do you know that he citizens of Phoenix are called Phoenicians?)

And, here’s the A on the hill with Gary sitting by it.

along with the young men who camp out on the hill in a tent, with music, lights and food who ‘guard’ the A.

The climb was pretty steep but doable. As we were heading down, the track team was running a relay up the hill - right at us. I wish I had a picture of the running hoard of yelling kids heading right at me. I wish I had a picture of my expression as I saw them running at me. Their coach had told them to run along the sides but, they got excited and started running up the whole 8’ wide sidewalk as a team.

The sun set, it got dark and it was time to head home.