WPA: the Evolution of an Issue

When your political juices are running especially hot, do consider how time can transform yesterday's contentious issue into today's nostalgia. Collectible, at that. In part, anyhow.
This old WPA sign was displayed in the window of an antique shop on Cortez Street. One more small piece of history for sale. I am old enough to recall my fiery and domineering California grandfather pounding the kitchen table as he expounded about "That Man in the White House" and his shenanigans. The time was the 30s. The Depression.

Today, FDR's Works Progress Administration is a forgotten and perhaps quaint piece of our past. But there are remnants throughout the country, including Prescott. Look for those symbols in older sidewalks -- or remains (above), such as the fragment which I found in the landscaping at the Prescott College Crossroads Center.

Here is a more robust version in a sidewalk still in use after 70 years.

This stamp on the concrete below the Smoki Museum represents a really substantial project. Many unemployed Prescott men were put to work building what was at the time Prescott's Armory on Gurley Street (below.) Today, it's the Grace Sparks Activity Center, named after the lady who spearheaded WPA activity in the area.

The wonderful rock masonry at the Smoki Museum was also part of the project.

We can even wax nostalgic about the well built stone staircase (and a stone-faced curb) that leads up to the Smoki. I wonder if there are any stone masons left who could do this sort of work today.

In the High Country

As I promised, I am truly BACKSON. The youngsters dropped me off this afternoon, after first indulging my photographic impulse in downtown Flagstaff and later stopping for fresh veggies down in the Verde Valley.


The funny thing is that I had never noticed the immense cow on the front of this building on previous visits to the capital of the high country -- and I'm told it's been there for years! Right on Milton. I guess my eye for detail and differences has changed since I started in on this blog project!


Also on Milton: this emporium where the idea appears to be to catch 'em getting ready for the first date -- and for the final date! By the way, if you are in the market for a Flagstaff business, here's your big chance -- check the leftmost window.

There's more than 13,000 students and 2000 feet elevation difference between Prescott and Flagstaff. Old building materials, to give an example. The building above is made from basalt stones, in contrast to Prescott's granite and river cobbles.


Old Main on the NAU campus provides a classic example of the other Flagstaff building stone: large bricks of Supai limestone -- quarried about three miles east of the center of town, says the son-in-law. (BTW, when my Aunt Iola attended NAU in the 20s, then the state normal school, those huge trees were not yet born.)

A Flagstaff sign that has gone missing since we first came to Arizona in the 80s -- the one fronting the one-time drive-in ammo and liquor store! The business is still there; it's a little more sedate now.

Arizona's rough edges are being gradually whittled away. A pity.

Stone Fences Make...

...good neighbor-hoods.

My late husband and I moved to the Prescott area in the early 80s. A Chicago native, my husband was smitten by the mountains, the scenery -- and, of course, the ROCKS!

You have to understand that the rocks you find in the Chicago region are small, few and far between, left behind when the Ice Age glaciers receded. There are a couple of limestone outcroppings in the city, rare and important enough as landmarks to actually bear names, such as Stony Island. By far the exception for a city that is sitting on a couple hundred feet of clay.

So, when LH arrived in AZ, he couldn't resist picking up pretty rocks, interesting rocks, or everyday rocks each time we went on an excursion. I had lived in the state as a youngster in the 30s and again in the 40s, so I was a little more picky. Needless to say, backpacks, the car floor and the yard were quickly weighted down by collections. Rocks of all sorts.


And whenever we had a guest from Illinois, it was rocks, rocks & more rocks -- until it was time to pack for the airplane, when reality set in. We, of course, were saddled with a bunch more rocks.

But all by way of introduction.


Because it's obvious that earlier Prescott people were also into rocks, for a more practical reason -- damn fine building material, right at hand. When you walk or drive around the town and older summer resort areas, such as Mountain Club or Walker, keep your eyes open for the wonderful stone cottages, outbuildings and fences.

For a great display of stone fences of various stripes and materials, I recommend a walk along Park Avenue. Because this street was carved into a hilly area full of granites, most houses starting at Gurley Street, heading south, feature a rock fence or retaining wall. Styles vary and in some cases, shaped blocks of granite are used. (As for the granite, I presume it's of local origin, though I've never been able to locate a one-time granite quarry on any of the area USGS topo quads.)


A problem: not all of those "retaining walls" that bound a front yard a few feet above the sidewalk were built as such. So I learned one day from an elderly mason. He was repairing one of those stone walls, which had suffered a breach after the water load in the soil uphill proved too heavy.

He researched old records and pictures, which showed that, when built, many of the walls were actually fences (to keep the local kids out -- Lincoln School is nearby.) The yards behind some of the fences sloped up to the houses. It was only later that people decided that level -- or less sloped yards were the Thing to Do (and easier to mow.)

Of course, some of the walls front yards that are high -- because the site is higher than street level. These are likely to incorporate boulders which were already there.

But take a look for yourself. The variety is to great to include here.