We've had a lot of fun over the last several years doing a detailed restoration (click on the red "Restoration..." button) of our 1914 vintage office of our janitorial service in Phoenix AZ.
It's a large two-story Prairie style house on the outskirts of Phoenix's original downtown, built by an early mover and shaker by the name of L. L. Steward. He was a school teacher in Lee's Ferry on the Colorado, ran a huge cattle ranch in northern Arizona, then moved to Phoenix to found a bank and a building and loan company. At Arizona statehood, in 1912, he's said to have managed Henry Fountain Ashurst's campaign to become Arizona's first U. S. Senator.
In researching the house Steward built, we put a good deal of effort into locating descendants of Steward and the other early owners of the house, hoping to find the proverbial "box full of photos" of the house in its original configuration. No luck at all.
Couple of days ago, got an e-mail from a lady whose grandparents lived in the house during WWII; she'd been doing genealogical research and came across her family name on the house's ownership chain, which we'd posted on our website. Years back, grandmother had told her about her time in Phoenix, in the house, and had photos....which have since gone away. She's checking with her extended family...
Interesting experience, researching - and preserving - a piece of early Arizona history.
A bit about us:
My firm, CBN Building Maintenance, provides commercial cleaning services in Phoenix AZ and the wider metro area. We've been in business since 1974; hold the BBB's A-plus rating; and have long been in the forefront of the industry in environmentally sensitive cleaning for health, safety and security. Our program can generally improve Indoor Air Quality, in the size range of most allergens, by a factor of 50%, as reflected in our ongoing IAQ sampling.
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