The interior courtyard of the Tovrea Mansion in happier days. (Steve Weiss photo).
A reader from Michigan wrote, "My wife and I were married at the Tovrea Mansion in 2000 (on today in fact — 6 Oct.). Not the Castle, but the mansion on 46th Street and Van Buren. We went back to see the building last week and found it abandoned, looted, and partially destroyed."
Almost everyone in Phoenix who pays attention knows about the Tovrea Castle and its storied past. The unique building was saved thanks to the city and a preservation effort led by former Mayor John Driggs. Amazingly, a number of loud voices opposed this and wanted the building demolished, the saguaros bladed.
The Tovrea Mansion was not so fortunate. A large ranch house surrounded by tall oleanders and palm trees, it was unknown by most Phoenicians. The pioneer Tovrea family lived there for decades. By the 2000s, it had been turned into an events center.
As with many things, I discovered the mansion when I was on the ambulance and responded to a call there. I was amazed at its beauty and peacefulness, especially considering that it had been surrounded by the Tovrea feedlots — at one time among the largest in the country — towering slaughterhouses and meat packing buildings, as well as sidings for the Southern Pacific Railroad when cattle and beef were transported by rail.
The mansion can't be appreciated without this context. Into the 1970s, Phoenix and Tempe were separated by the large footprint of the cattle industry. The Stockyards Restaurant, still a little treasure of history, was built amid actual stockyards.
The stench could be overwhelming. But this was an important part of the Valley's agricultural sector, one that provided jobs and exported "value added" food products to the country. Back then Phoenix could feed itself, no dependence on a 10,000-mile supply chain. Aside from being a Pullman porter, working at Cudahay Packing was one of the few avenues for a good job for African-Americans.
Then, as one traveled west, Van Buren became one of the city's inviting neon gateways with small, enchanting "auto courts" and motels that would have made for distinctive artists' housing, cool retro lodging, and startup havens if only they had been preserved — not singly, but within their physical context. But history doesn't forgive "if only."
I log in this casualty for the few, outside of the preservationists and natives, who will care. The few who are not besotted by sun, north Scottsdale, the "Price Corridor," and championship golf. For us, these losses are not lazy nostalgia. These seeming little pieces were in fact among the hundreds of things that made Phoenix a place we loved.
As a friend wrote, "In that grief, for me, is the grief of the transition from civic responsibility to the lionization of greed and materialism. Sometimes my grief over this is physically painful and triggers my grief over the loss of so many people, now dead, that would be appalled by what the city has become."
Riding light rail (WBIYB) east of downtown, I keep imagining a project that would document the amazing variety of buildings that remain — such as amazing territorial-era apartments near 14th Street and Washington — and the ones that are mostly gone. These range from humble homesteads in an area where minorities could buy property in Phoenix's segregation era to industries. For example, the large bakery where Jefferson curves (we went there on a school field trip) is gone, leaving empty land.
Emptiness is what distinguishes so much of this district of the city (and so many other parts). I've lived in cities around the country and can't think of one that has so clear cut its urban fabric, not merely buildings but the connective tissue. You see, Phoenix used to fit together, not just be a collection of vacant land and tilt-up ugliness. It had charm and beauty, character and bones, many of them good if modest.
The Tovrea Mansion was one of them. And so many more, gone.
Read more about Phoenix's remarkable past, and how it still echoes, in Rogue's history archive.
A friend sent me these links to some delicious TV from the 1960s: two Route 66 episodes filmed in Phoenix.
The first one might make you cry since it shows a still-vital downtown at night and a neighborhood at 3rd St & Moreland later taken out by the 1-10 freeway. http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/route-66/shoulder-the-sky-my-lad/53cd481569702d27d3c91900
That link may require you to disable your Adblock. Here's another one to the same show but abbreviated. It's on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH0DuFn-aZY
The second episode shows uptown Phoenix during its early boom. It's mostly inside the Guaranty Bank building but shows through the window the Del Webb Building due north during its construction. There's also a bit of Scottsdale, too, the Executive House hotel where the shows protagonists were staying. I think this was a bit north of Camelback on Scottsdale Rd. http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/route-66/you-never-had-it-so-good/53cd481569702d27d3d71800 Here's the abbreviated You Tube document: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZafBjNr3oUg
These episodes were apparently filmed during the same period in early 1963.
Posted by: soleri | October 09, 2015 at 03:23 PM
For you bowlers out there, the old 300 Bowl at 1900 W Bethany has had a complete inside make over. However if you went there in the 50's you will feel at home. The outside architecture remains.
Bob's restaurant on the SE Corner is gone as is the Mary Coyle ice-cream shop just north. I forgot to see if the old Wineburger owned by a classmate still exists.
And for you Urban campers: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/05/naked-cities
Posted by: cal lash | October 09, 2015 at 10:22 PM
Thank you Jon for this column. I'm the reverse-snowbird that wrote you about Tovrea.
The landmarks of my formative years continue to be scraped off the map. Alas.
Posted by: Anthony | October 10, 2015 at 06:31 AM
300 Bowl is site of my best line ever. An older brother and I went in on a whim; between us we had enough for 5 frames or so. Several strikes later, I needed to finish, we ran out somewhere, scrounged enough to finish. I returned and stayed in the groove, finished the game with pennies to spare.
Was there a Mary Coyle's at 15th ave and Thomas? That's the one I remember. My go-to ice cream, though, was Lily, when I could get it. MacAlpines on 7th served and sold it.
Two of the state's 4 Cs got in your nose sometimes- the sweet citrus blossoms in the Spring, and the stockyards when the wind came in from the East.
My wedding took place in a spot similar to Tovrea estate- Rockefeller Lodge in San Pablo, Cal. Word was that John D had it built for duck hunting near the huge refinery and tanker depot in Richmond, probably surrounded by marshes at the time. It was eventually converted to an events space. San Pablo's a strange little town.
Posted by: Dawgzy | October 10, 2015 at 01:28 PM
The second Mary Coyle ice cream palor was just north of Bethany Home Road on the east side of the street. I believe there was a cleaners and then The Wineburger owned by Jo Ann Pote, a Washington High School Home Coming Queen.
Tovera ' s or Cudahy: Before I was a cop I was Mrs. Cudahay ' s paperboy. And also for Jay Rockefeller and old man Gosnell and Bob Goldwater and Nancy Reagan ' s parents. Mrs. Cudahay gave me huge meat tray for Xmas.
The good years.
.
Posted by: cal Lash | October 10, 2015 at 05:38 PM
Good new comment on the Westward Ho column.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | October 11, 2015 at 11:19 AM
Observations.
1.Phoenix suffered extreme growthgasim. Most of it was built between 1945 and 2000 – a period noted for its crappy architecture; everywhere, not just Phoenix.
2.Better to be a backwater city like Portland or Birmingham. Most of the pre-war buildings survived. I fact more than survived; conversion to lofts and apartments wildly popular.
Posted by: wkg_in_bham | October 11, 2015 at 11:22 AM
Time moves on and tastes change. The mansion didn’t have a patron with the resources to support such an edifice; couldn’t make it as an “event center”. The train station couldn’t make it as a train station when people don’t ride trains; but at least it survived as a phone switching center. Be happy; it could be worse.
A cool article on a neighborhood in Dallas. Repurposing of crappy commercial buildings:
http://granolashotgun.com/2015/10/05/the-other-kind-of-new-urbanism/
Posted by: wkg_in_bham | October 12, 2015 at 01:58 AM
Ugh. I remember my first semester at ASU, living in Saguaro Hall (which has gone the way of the Electric Banana - don't look for it, it's not there anymore) when the wind was from the west, wafting the stench of the stockyards into my room.
Posted by: Chucko | October 12, 2015 at 09:12 AM
This thread seems to have died, so I don’t feel like I’m jacking it.
I was at Barnes and Noble the other night - my home away from home. Forbes, like U.S. News and World Report, has a college ranking issue.
Some of the numbers:
From Forbes College Guide
Az. State numbers
Total annual cost $39,977
In state tuition and fees: $10,157
Students on financial aid: 91%
Students on loans: 42%
Avg. annual loan $6,306
Admit rate: 80%
6 year grad rate: 59%
In-state tuition and fees of neighbors
U of New Mexico $6,846
U of Utah $7,835
U of Nevada $6,610
Arizona State U $10,157
U of Colorado $10,789
U of California – Berkley $12,972
Others:
U of Oregon: $9,918
U of Washington: $12,394
Stanford: $45,195
UA Birmingham: $7,510
U of Florida: $6,313
Perceived ranking of quality (large research universities)
U Cal-Berkley: #35
U of Florida: #41
U of Utah: #86
U of Colorado: #114
Az. SU: #124
U of New Mexico #152
U of Nevada: #173
Posted by: wkg_in_bham | October 12, 2015 at 11:43 PM
wkg:
Colleges, boards of trustees, and a handful of other bad actors have created a pricing system for higher education (cloaked in the guise of the "common good") that is beyond lunacy.
You'll have a better chance of figuring out the Internal Revenue Code.
Posted by: INPHX | October 13, 2015 at 08:23 AM