Let’s continue to explore the Valley of the Sun…
Mesa Marketplace Swap Meet
Mesa is a large suburb of Phoenix, home to about 500,000 people twenty miles east of Phoenix. The area around Mesa has been settled for thousands of years. The Hohokam people developed extensive irrigation networks and by 1450 A.D. had over 110,000 acres under cultivation. Some of their canals are still in use today. While agriculture is still a major factor in the economy, tourism and manufacturing are more important today. The Valley of the Sun is a prime example of urban sprawl and Mesa is no exception. Home to thousands of retirees living in manufactured housing of various ages in large developments, it doesn’t have much character on its’ own, though a revitalization of the small downtown core is underway with a new arts center. A more “indigenous” experience is head to one of the area’s most popular attractions, the Mesa Swap Meet. Held every Friday-Sunday on the eastern edge of Mesa, this is an amazing place to people watch and shop for virtually any kind of junk you could want. It brags of being the home to “recreational shopping” as over 1,500 merchants ply their wares in four enormous warehouses, each about a quarter of a mile long. In the center is a large food court with live music. Have to say that it was an experience!
The Rose Garden at Mesa Community College
Mesa also boasts of the largest rose garden in the desert southwest with over 9,000 bushes planted in the last 40 years. Given that my old home of Portland, Oregon, is known as the “Rose City” I couldn’t imagine how roses could grow in the desert climate of Mesa, but they do. Maintained by the “Deadheaders”, a community volunteer group, the rose gardens form a beautiful entrance to the MCC campus.
Hall of Flame Fire Museum
A totally different experience (and every little boy’s dream) is visiting the Hall of Flame Fire Museum. Another example of a man pursuing his individual passion, the Hall of Flames was started by George Getz in Kenosha, Wisconsin when he acquired his first fire engine, a 1924 American La France, as a Christmas present from his wife. The Getz’ moved to Scottsdale, AZ, in the 1970’s and the new Hall of Flame opened in 1974. Over 130 fire engines, dating from 1725, form the core of the collection. Here are just a few!
The earliest pieces in the collection are a 1725 (#1) and 1750 (#2) Newham pumps from England that were small enough to be carried onto ships or into a building. Once attached by a hose to a water source like a pond or river, they could pump up to 25 gallons per minute. A hundred years later the technology hadn’t really changed much. On the right is is an 1838 piece built for use on the Earl of Harrington’s estate in Derbyshire, England.
An 1852 version of the same basic technology was used in Grafton, Massachusetts.
Around 1900 horse drawn pumpers were still in use, with ladder wagons coming in to play to fight fires in the taller buildings now being constructed.
Everyone loves a good parade, and a good parade isn’t complete without a fire truck, even in the 1800’s. Fire companies built and lovingly maintained “show” engine just for use in parades.
There are just too many engines on display to adequately illustrate a visit. Here’s a few more…
1890 Aerial Truck, 1872 Chemical Engine
1890 Phoenix, AZ, Chemical Engine, 1927 Seagrams, 1948 Mack
The enormous warehouse is filled with fire engines.
Two actual alarm centers are set up. The first (left) is a system that served the city of Glendale, California, from 1925 to 1970. The other (right) is the system used by the city of Phoenix until 1981. It is still tied into the city’s current system and as I watched you could see alarms coming in from around Phoenix.
The museum is mostly staffed and cared for by volunteers, one of the benefits of the Valley of the Sun being a center for thousands of retirees!
Taliesin West
One of icons of American architecture is Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). His career spanned a tremendous transition in popular architecture from the ornate Victorian designs around the turn of the century to the sleek, modern mid-century themes of the 1950’s. He was a proponent of “organic architecture” where the design was planned to be in harmony with the earth around it. I’m a fan!
Taliesin West is the counterpart to the original Taliesin in Wisconsin. Taliesin was Wright’s school of architecture and home but in the 1930’s his health led doctors to recommend the desert climate as an escape from Wisconsin winters. Thus began the yearly cycle which continues to this day. Architectural students (about 20 at a time) spend the winters at the Arizona campus and summers in Wisconsin. Taliesin West was actually constructed by Wright’s students on 500 acres north of Phoenix at the foot of the Superstition Mountains. A tightly controlled tour is the only way to explore the grounds. Because it is a working school and was in session when I visited, photography was restricted to the residential and group areas of the complex. While the tour visited the student’s studio, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures or talk while we were in the large room. My tour group (20 people) gather at the entrance to the home at its’ west end.
One of the first things that became clear was the Asian influence on Wright’s designs. As somewhat of a private jest, throughout the complex there are mosaics of Chinese dolls embedded into the concrete. Apparently one of Wright’s disciples found a stash of broken dolls in San Francisco and brought them back to the master, who included them throughout the house.
The first area visited is Wright’s office, which includes the original table where he spread out his plans for clients to examine. There was no electricity available when Taliesin West was built so there are fireplaces in every room of the original structure to ward off the winter chill.
The main building is a long, low structure with the student design studio on the west and the very small living quarters for Wright and his wife on to the right of the concrete plaza.
Turning around from the view of the house is a spectacular view of the Valley of the Sun. Scottsdale unfolds immediately below the grounds while Phoenix is nearly 20 miles away on the other side of the small rocky crags that rise from the valley floor in the distance.
The living room area is large but the ceilings are low, so low that I hit my head on the beam above the near sitting area. Our guide is quick to point out some of the features in the room. The furniture is not original but made from the original specifications of Wright.
The artwork was carefully chosen throughout the house and in a number of places it was the house that adjusted to the artwork, not the other way around. Here a circle was cut in a glass window to accommodate a vase, despite the impact of the weather on the wood casing.
The bedrooms were open to the outdoors via a wall of folding doors and are quite small. Wright’s bedroom included a rather bizarre bed, which was divided in half by a wood half-wall. Sleeping on the right indicated that he was just napping and could be interrupted, sleeping on the left meant he was not to be disturbed.
Mrs. Wright’s room has a small bed and Oriental screens on the wall.
A long court runs along the back of the building, complete with a decorative pool behind the residential area and the much larger student building stretching to the west.
A conference room is dug into the hillside on one end while a theater burrows underground on the other.
Sculptures decorate the buildings and a raised sculpture court is at the far end.
From the sculpture garden I turn back and take one last look at the main building, which is where the students work in one large room.
Usually I prefer to do the “self-guided” tour, but in this case the tour guide (while a bit annoying) was very informative and really brought the buildings to life.
Next up: Heading north to Arizona mountain country…
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