How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Mesa: famous, rain)

[deraffe]

very cool picture! i vaugely remember it as a kid. too bad they did not preserve the house though.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

Az Mike....

is the old bridge you're mentioning actually the old Ash Avenue Bridge - about one or two blocks W of Mill Ave?....

built in 1913, it was torn down about ten or more years ago, but a very short stub of it was preserved on the Tempe side of the river, now within the Tempe Beach park area.....

I don't know which bridge this is. The photo was taken by the mother of a friend of mine way back, maybe 1917 and this was known as the great flood. There was not much to do in Phoenix at the time except go see the Salt River flood.

[SEvans2199]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

Some museums in the Valley that are long gone: who remembers them?

The Antique Auto Museum: formerly on the east side of Scottsdale Road, north of Osborne, across from the Hawks Corvette dealership. 1956 - 1961. Clifford and Mike Flynn opened their museum to display their collection of antique cars, including a 1911 Metz and a Stanley Steamer.

The Wax Museum: Part of the Madame Tussaud franchise (there are still ones all around the country, like Washington D.C. and San Francisco on Fisherman's Wharf...I wonder if any of the statues from the Arizona ones ever made it to any of those when they closed?). The first location opened in 1962 at 7108 E. Stetson Drive in Scottsdale. Arthur Batty was the managing director. I remember the tableu of Booth shooting Lincoln, the Beatles (as a publicity stunt, they were flown seated in first class from London and landed at Sky Harbor in 1964, causing a mini-riot), and MacArthur wading ashore in the Philippines. The Chamber of Horrors seemed to have been in the collective nightmares of a lot of my generation from what people have told me, especially an extremely graphic frontier scalping. I used to have nightmares that I was trapped in the wax museum overnight, and tried to walk past the Chamber of Horrors, but a massive wind would arise and pull me inside...only to find the scalper had come to life.) The Scottsdale city sign ordinances wouldn't let them put up a directional sign from Scottsdale Road, so the new owner moved it over to its final location, near Tovrea Castle and the meat-packing plant, where we often went on dates after high school (with me still carefully avoiding the scalping exhibit) on 5555 E. Van Buren. It closed in 1975, and the building was rented out for a while for punk rock shows and as a wedding venue. I think this desert city needs a wax museum again.

McGee's Indian Museum - in the Clock Tower Building on Stetson Drive in Scottsdale. Opened in 1966 as a sort of commercial Scottsdale competitor to the Heard Museum, it had Indian arts and crafts displays as well as weavers, jewelers, and silversmiths working on-site that you could watch. I remember being fascinated by the jewelers using hand-powered drills. Closed in the mid-1970s, with the collection going back to private collectors and some pieces being donated to the Heard Museum.

The Mouse House Museum: Olive Atwater Getz opened a museum of over 3000 mouse-related figurines (including original Mickey Mouse sketches from Disney, a Mickey Mouse kachina doll donated by Barry Goldwater, and a whole 9-room Victorian dollhouse with mouse figurines inside) in 1981 at 3634 Civic Center Boulevard (now Drinkwater Boulevard). Closed in 1991. The family was unable to find another site and most pieces were sold at auction with the family keeping some pieces. Another Getz family member, George Getz, opened his own museum of fire-fighting equipment, the Hall of Flame, which is still open off of Van Buren.

The Reptile Gardens: I think there have been some photos of this posted earlier on this thread (there are some photos on the Van Buren historical website - go back to page 69 of this thread for my link to that website): Opened by Charles L. Evans, a taxidermist, just west of 53rd Street on Van Buren (where the 202 Loop is now). It was open from 1932 to the 1950s and had snakes and lizards from Arizona and all around the world. You could get in anytime for 10 or 15 cents. There were some bungalows Evans built on the backside of the property with the walls made out of cardboard newsprint tubes painted white (an early use of "green" recycling, I guess), with Evans living in the largest tube house. They were abandoned but still standing up until they were demolished in the 1990s when they built the freeway. I remember seeing them there in the mid 1970s when living in the area and wondering what they were.

(That whole area between Phoenix and Tempe off Van Buren was the entertainment mecca for generations of Valley dwellers - you had Legend City, the Wax Museum, Weldon Riding Stables, a Go-Kart Track, the Zoo, Papago Park, the Hall of Flame, the Desert Botanical Gardens, and the Reptile Gardens.)

The Indian War Museum - opened in the mid-1960s at the northeastern corner of Indian School Road and Orange Boulevard (roughly where Goldwater Boulevard is now). Apparently not open long, it had a big cannon out front, Indian relics from over 50 tribes, guns, a Civil War collection, colonial antiques. I can just barely remember going there. There were two other short-lived museums in Scottsdale that may have had some kind of ownership ties, the Pony Express Museum on West Main Street and the Museum of Early America on Main Street.

I remember this well, actually lived there as Charles was my Grandfather.
My father Whitman ran the Cactus Gardens.

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by SEvans2199

I remember this well, actually lived there as Charles was my Grandfather.
My father Whitman ran the Cactus Gardens.

Very cool!

Any photos you would like to post?

[baby sinister]

I've often wondered why the Salt river flooded everything out back in the day...I think the last big flood was right around 1980. Why that has not happened again in the last 30 years...what has been done over the years to improve on flooding? We were always effected by the floods as we lived only a quarter of a mile from the banks of the Salt.

[jack swilling]

I found a good piece on Acquanetta at--

www.loti.com/fifties.../Acquanetta_B-Rated_Bombshell.htm

I hope you enjoy it.
I think you have to type "Acquanetta" on the site.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by jack swilling

I found a good piece on Acquanetta at--

www.loti.com/fifties.../Acquanetta_B-Rated_Bombshell.htm

I hope you enjoy it.
I think you have to type "Acquanetta" on the site.

The above link didn't work, but I found the article anyway. Interesting!

I'll try posting the link again.

Acquanetta: The B-Rated Venezuelan Volcano - Fifties Sixties Movies

Works now.

[locolobo13]

Originally Posted by observer53

The above link didn't work, but I found the article anyway. Interesting!

I'll try posting the link again.

Acquanetta: The B-Rated Venezuelan Volcano - Fifties Sixties Movies

Works now.

Interesting article. The article says she owned and sold the Casa Grande Ruins to the City of Mesa? I always thought they belonged to the state. Is there another Casa Grande Ruins?

[observer53]

I think that part is in error. I don't think there is any ancient Hohokam temple in the city of Mesa, by any name, and the Casa Grande by Coolidge has been a national monument since well before the 1980s.

[desertratz]

Originally Posted by observer53

I think that part is in error. I don't think there is any ancient Hohokam temple in the city of Mesa, by any name, and the Casa Grande by Coolidge has been a national monument since well before the 1980s.

What they probably are referring to is the Mesa Grande ruins just west of the old Mesa Lutheran hospital. Acquanetta got the property as part of her settlement when she divorced Jack Ross. Not many people are even aware these are here, I even know people who lived 2 blocks over and had no idea what the dirt mound across from the hospital was even about.

I grew up about a 1/2 mile from there and us retarded kids would ride our bikes over there and use the dirt mounds to jump our bikes. The city of Mesa buying the property is probably the only thing that saved it from eventual destruction.

See a couple of links below.

Mesa Grande, Mesa, Arizona. Ancient Hohokam Ruins. Travels & Tours, Pictures, Photos, And Information.

Mesa Grande