Why Me? The Last Queen Anne Cottage in the Churchill Addition.

From the point of view of the historic Louis Emerson House.

I never imagined that after 124 years had passed, I would become the last surviving Queen Anne cottage in the Churchill Addition. How did that happen? Curious about how I became the last of my kind, people asked local historians, cartographers, and preservationists to help tell my story.

The Churchill Addition was the second residential subdivision beyond the original townsite that was annexed by Phoenix back in 1895. Its boundary streets of Roosevelt Street, Central Avenue, 7th and Van Buren Streets, were subject to commercial intrusion over time. And the Churchhill Addition seemed to be an excellent site for schools (St. Mary’s High School, Phoenix Union High School, and McKinley Elementary School), an early YMCA building, and even the earliest site of St. Joseph’s Hospital. For some enthusiasts, knowing the Brill Line (streetcar trolley) travelled right in front of my doors was exciting.

During the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, those other Victorians and bungalows were gradually snapped up, leveled, and small two-story apartments appeared. And sometimes, vacant dirt lots remained as parking spots for decades.

One by one, I watched my neighbors disappear. Somehow I survived until the proposal of the massive Arizona Center Project in the late 1980s. The city felt they needed to realign 4th Street as the Arizona Center would cover nearly six full city blocks. Fortunately, my owner found a way to save me from the bulldozer by pushing me back 40’ on the same lot. And what did I get for that move??? A new foundation! And later came the towering residential neighbors.

But now I face my greatest threat yet. Arizona State University wants MY LOT!! Not for a building based on rough plans we have seen for a large medical center on my odd-shaped block, but for green space. ASU is going to court to seize and demolish me, but there is time to convince university officials, the Arizona Board of Regents, and city leaders to simply refine their design.

I am small, old in structure, but mighty in my spirit and fight to save myself and remain as a reminder of what was once a large area full of small homes.

Won’t you help save me?

Donna Reiner is the co-author of three books on Phoenix history and a board member of Preserve Phoenix.