Friday, April 16, 2010

The view from Bradshaw Drive

You would think that with all the wandering and exploring my husband and I did over our years in this area, we might have taken a look at the southeast quadrant of Prescott -- that turf south of Gurley, east of the Senator Highway. The reality is that we were not particularly interested in housing developments -- in fact, tended to sniff at them. So, it was a new experience when one of my friends and I followed up the IOOF cemetery/Acker Park visit by checking out the hilly neighborhoods. Bradshaw Drive is the major route, but be sure to enjoy it driving downhill to see the sites:

For instance, a great view of The Peaks 90 miles north.

Or the cropped hilltop next the Senator Highway. Is that a sled run going straight downhill there?

Prescott opens up to the north.
One of two facilities for the aged located on Bradshaw -- the crenelations of The Peridot. A recently built subsidized rental complex is just around the corner; it will soon have additional buildings.

Houses clinging to the hillsides are a feature -- neither lawn nor garden friendly real estate.

Unexpectedly, in the middle of this upscale modernity, we turned a curve to see this remnant of earlier days. The old Tenney homestead, I am told. A nostalgic reminder of a nearly buried past.

8 comments:

Barney, The Old Fat Man said...

Great coverage. Whether we like it or not, housing is part of our world. Sometimes I wander housing places to see the parks.

Judy said...

The Tenney place is only hold out. Nice little trip.
I also enjoyed the artwork in your last post. There are some very talented folks working on that. I will have to get over there to see it.

Granny J said...

ofm -- I'll admit that I hate it when housing gobbles up the countryside (and hillsides), though it can be interesting to explore neighborhoods, especially if they've been around long enough to acquire any sort of character...

jarart -- I was truly amazed when the old homestead popped into view. BTW, there's another new mural, this on one of the Dexter School buildings at Formerly Five Points.

Anonymous said...

I'll be the old homestead feels a bit lonely amongst all the city slickers.

Omegadad/SIL

Antipodean Curmudgeon said...

It's pretty specky (spectacular) seeing the peaks from the road--damn tall hills.

Hermanp

Granny J said...

od -- I'll bet the old homestead is calculating just how much it can take those city slickers for...

bro -- too bad we can't see The Peaks at their height, before the volcano went BOOM! 16,000 ft., if I remember correctly.

Andy C said...

The following comes from Mona McCrosky's recent article on Angora Goat Ranching in Yavapai County (Territorial Times 2(1), 2008) - In 1925 Nathan Tenney moved his large family from the Wilcox [sic] area...to a location off the Senator Highway near Prescott, where he converted an old barn into living quarters. A big goat shed and corrals were constructed just to the east of the house. Tenney's children herded goats on his range ...Tenney's son Boyd later served twenty years in the Arizona Legislature with distinction. As a young man Boyd raised goats also. He recycled materials from his father's old goat-milking shed into a barn and lived on the property for many years.

Granny J said...

andyc -- thanks for the intel! Apparently goat ranching was important in the Bradshaws in the early 1900s. As I recall, the Coopers, down at the south end of the range also ran goat herds.

 
Photo Blog Blog Top Sites Blog Directory for Prescott, AZ

Local Blogs - Blog Top Sites