How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Mesa: short sale, foreclosed)

[Arizona Mike]

AZR May 16, 1935 - Mission Dairy sponsored Golden Gloves boxing contestants

[Arizona Mike]

After the fire: July 11, 1939

[Arizona Mike]

5/4/1940 - They sponsored radio news shows (interesting view of what Phoenicians were listening to in 1940...)

[Arizona Mike]

AZR April 18. 1935

[Arizona Mike]

goldwing66, if you are looking to find more information on Mission Dairy, you can also go to the Maricopa County Recorder's site and do a search for the business name: Maricopa County Recorder

You'll find public records on deeds, assignments of trust, etc. Always a useful resource when researching Phoenix history.

Hope all the above was helpful to you.

[jukebox47]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

(above from Scotty's earlier post)

The North Mountain Hospital was at 48 E. Foothill Drive., and it was built by Dr. Kenneth E. Hall from recycled material from other demolished properties. It faced southwest off the Shaw Butte / North Mountain Range. The architect was Blaine Drake, who was one of Frank Lloyd Wright's early apprentices at Taliesin, and also had input from one of his draftsmen, Charles Cash



Another view:



This was a scale model that was constructed of the hospital prior to construction:



Here's a shot of Dr. Hall from inside his hospital. You can see a little bit of what I think is Sunnyslope Mountain through the window behind him.



The hospital was demolished after being abandoned (and a lure to many Valley teens, who were fascinated by the monkey cages), but Dr. Hall's home, designed by Drake and Cash, is still there on 2nd Street in Sunnyslope. It was also built from recycled demolitions:



It was expanded over the years as Dr. Hall's family grew and covers two lots.

It sounds pretty nice. From an article at: http://www.modernphoenix.net/sunnyslope.htm:

"The first thing that would have drawn visitors' attention would have been the exterior fish pond that extended through a glass wall into the living room; this room included such modern features as a flagstone waterfall, and living areas for a large parrot and a mynah bird. This is a good example of Hall's love of animals and plants that is seen throughout the house. Most of the rooms featured built-in planters, custom furniture, cabinets and even fireplaces. The house is currently undergoing a major renovation by the current owner, but has continued to improve the modern exterior."

Dr. Hall is also known for building The Castle Sports Club, originally known as El Cid, on 19th Avenue and Cholla as a recreation facility for the area. It was also built from recycled construction materials, had a two-lane bowling alley (recycled from a defunct bowling alley in Mesa, an ice-skating rink, 4 rec rooms for teens, and a snack bar. It was under construction for 20 years, was open a year, then closed due to bankruptcy. It was a Pruitt's Furniture store for a while, then later reopened as the Castle Sports Club, and local club teams played hockey, roller derby and other sports there. It had a decent weight room, too. It closed fairly recently (I think - I drove by a while ago and it was all shuttered up.) The extrerior was inspitred by a church in Virginia. It had a lot of chivalric design elements inspired by the 1961 Charlton Heston film that inspired it's original name of El Cid - the 11th Century Spanish knight who helped drive the Moors out of Spain. It had heavy wooden doors, suits of armor, wrought iron knights on horseback, etc. I'm sorry it's closed, I like those kind of idiosyncratic places in our city.

From Marshall Shore's article at the link above: "All the art work [in the Castle] is the hand of immigrant artistWilliam Heguigorri, who was in Arizona for the health of his wife. Heguigorri spent over two years on the details of 20 hand carved doors, and created the art work inset into the interior arches. One of the most striking features is that each steel girder has been covered with a plastic/ cement mixture that is scored to mimic Ponderosa pine bark and lines a large terrazzo walkway with hand set images through out."



Unfortunately, El Cid was alleged to have been built with Medicare funds that were earmarked for rest-home patients at North Mountain Hospital, and Dr. Hall, who had reportedly lost his license to do surgery when two patients died for what other doctors described as experimental gastroinintestinal procedures to help them lose weight (it sounded a little like an early version of the "belly band" - maybe that's what he was practicing on the monkeys in the hospital), was indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1974. That's according to newspaper accounts at the time, I'm not sure what the outcome of the indictment was.

A Dr. Hall had an office near 16th St and Mohave St in the mid-fifties. My dad was very ill and a Patient of Dr. Hall. It was an experience. We also made a visit to "that" Sunnyslope hospital during the course of all that. It too was an experience for a nine year old kid.

[desertskies]

Originally Posted by scottybrown602

The house you show up on the hill isn't 128 mountain view, its just northwest of 7th avenue and Mountain View the driveway at the bottom of the hill on the due south side. If I recall the house on the hill belonged to the Newscaster Linda Williams in the 1990's. And yes I have always heard there was a fire up there some time in the past, but I heard it was way earlier than the 1990.s.
I think you may be thinking of the North Mountain Hospital (Monkey Mansion), which sat just above the intersection of Central and Mountain View. It was a popular party spot when it was an abandoned ruin, some crazy parties went on there.

Maricopa County Assessors office shows it to be 134 Mountain View and belongs to a Williams Family Trust. 128 Mountain View is also owned by the same trust.

[PhxNative1961]

Maricopa County is in the process of refurbishing the upper floors of the Security Building on the southwest corner of Central & Van Buren. Any and all information/stories you might have regarding this historic building since it opened in 1928 would be great.

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by PhxNative1961

Maricopa County is in the process of refurbishing the upper floors of the Security Building on the southwest corner of Central & Van Buren. Any and all information/stories you might have regarding this historic building since it opened in 1928 would be great.

The Security Building in the 1930s:


Walsh Brothers at ground level in the 1940s:

[b_mc]

Originally Posted by scottybrown602

The house you show up on the hill isn't 128 mountain view, its just northwest of 7th avenue and Mountain View the driveway at the bottom of the hill on the due south side. If I recall the house on the hill belonged to the Newscaster Linda Williams in the 1990's. And yes I have always heard there was a fire up there some time in the past, but I heard it was way earlier than the 1990.s.
I think you may be thinking of the North Mountain Hospital (Monkey Mansion), which sat just above the intersection of Central and Mountain View. It was a popular party spot when it was an abandoned ruin, some crazy parties went on there.

I could be wrong about the address but according to google earth if you type in that address it takes you exactly to the spot and you can even see the ruins there.