Beyond the Sun-Bleached Pavement

In 1884, the city council bought Block 32—ruins of a pre-Columbian Hohokam community called "La Villa"—because citizens worried train passengers' first view of Phoenix was a cemetery "right at the door of our beautiful city." Seven cemeteries operated here between 1884-1914: AOUW, IOOF, Knights of Pythias, Loosley (City Cemetery), Masons, Porter, and Rosedale. Closed to burials in 1914 by new city law. Renamed Pioneer and Military Memorial Park February 1, 2007. Estimated 3,700 burials, fewer than 600 with headstones. Darrell Duppa (Englishman who named Phoenix and Tempe) buried in Masons section. Jacob Waltz (German immigrant, Lost Dutchman gold secret) buried in City/Loosley section. Potter's field for unclaimed bodies. History layered on Hohokam ruins.

When King Tut's tomb was discovered in 1922, Arizona's first governor George W.P. Hunt became obsessed with pyramid burial. Hunt was an unconventional progressive—he fought for women's suffrage, abolished child labor, did his own grocery shopping (scandalous for 1920s men), and knitted scarves for soldiers during WWI. He served seven terms between 1912 and 1933. When his wife Helen died in 1931, Hunt built a 20-foot-tall pyramid faced with white bathroom tile in Papago Park. Helen was entombed April 4, 1933. Hunt died from heart failure December 24, 1934, and joined her. Seven people total are buried inside. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, the tomb sits atop a red sandstone hill, overshadowed by nearby Hole in the Rock. Most visitors drive right past Arizona's weirdest monument to its least conventional governor.

Built 1929 for Chinese-born businessman Tang Shing, became the largest wholesale grocery house in Phoenix. Last remaining building from Phoenix's Second Chinatown (c. 1890–1960). Phoenix's Chinatown was established by Chinese railroad workers in the 1870s-1880s, filled with laundries, groceries, restaurants until mid-1940s when larger corporations bought out Chinese businesses. National Register of Historic Places September 1985. Phoenix Historic Property Register March 1987. In 2005, Phoenix Suns proposed a $200 million luxury high-rise that would incorporate the building's base with roof removed. Historic preservationists, Asian American community, and city council fought it. Project blocked by lawsuit. As of 2019: IASIS Healthcare Multi Specialty Clinic. Silent witness to vanished community.

Dwight "Red" Harkins was 25 years old at the tail-end of the Great Depression when he founded Harkins Theatres. He opened his first theater (the State Theater) in Tempe in 1933. This was his third Tempe theater. Constructed in 1938, opened November 21, 1940 as the College Theatre—named for proximity to Arizona State Teachers College (now ASU). Renamed Valley Art Theatre December 30, 1960. Arizona's oldest and longest operating movie theater. 2011: Harkins spent $1 million renovating—state-of-the-art projection, rocker seats, new snack bar—while maintaining exterior facade, box office, neon sign, and marquee. Tempe's largest neon sign. In Tempe, overshadowed by newer theaters, but still screening.