Riding the Rail

The two of us have been talking about riding the light rail and geocaching along the way to downtown Phoenix. Friday was the day. With friends from SD, the four of us boarded the train and headed west, getting off and on the train nine times before heading to a favorite eating place in Tempe.

Interesting sculpture at our first stop

A close-up of the welded metal

ASU stadiums at the next stop

Hubby & Bernie located that cache

Our ride for the day

Waiting for the next train

Airport Station: I thought the station canopy looked like airplanes

Tribute to Navajo Code Talkers statue,

another of our cache stops today

The building was built of granite from Brazil

Another interesting sculpture and cache location

Another sculpture in a park downtown Phoenix

Flowering bushes in the park

Nice to see blossoms on January 31st

Maroon and gold ASU building

And then to cap off a fun, successful day...

A Harp and a Blue Moon

Shepherd's Pie

Fish and Chips

Homes 5 & 6 of the Superior Homes Tour

The last of the photos from Ladies Day Out in Superior on Sunday.

The Darrs were our hosts at Home #5: The Penny House

Mrs. Darr wanted a copper counter top in her kitchen.

It was costly, but she came up with another option...

She is covering her counters with pennies.

The Darrs built their fireplace with smooth river stones.

Doc Darr makes didgeridoos.

They are a very artist family.

Their home was filled with paintings, quilts,

and other crafts from 4 generations.

The view of Apache Leap from their side yard.

Tool collection on the yard fence

Doc on the left and an Australian guest playing one 

of Doc's many hand-crafted didgeridoo.

I enjoyed several of their haunting numbers.

The Darrs have hauled and carried many 

AZ desert and river rocks.

House #6: The Smith Home

This home has Picket Post Mountain as their backyard view

and Apache Leap as their front yard view from anywhere 

on their 25 acres.

The house was built in 1956. 

It is being modernized by the current owners. 

The owners' mother was our tour guide.

The telephone booth came from a mine in Butte MT 

and sits in the corner of the living room.

The current owners, grand nephew of the original owner,

 must be collectors of crosses.

Notice that 1950s ceiling light.

Historical Homes 3 & 4

Ladies Day Out in Superior continued:

As I was reading through the bios for the two homes on this post, I learned "somewhere between the 1980s and 1990s, artists and art lovers had discovered Superior. While much of the town was still in disrepair, the colony of artists began to grow and there was a small but steady movement to reclaim and rejuvenate individual houses." 


The "Little House" was built in 1927 by Paul Besich, a miner from Croatia. He and his wife built a number of houses in Superior as rental properties and this was one of them. But once the mine closed, like many other houses in Superior, it was abandoned as families left town to find work elsewhere.

In 2000, Leslie West, an actress, business woman and artist from California, bought the house for her art studio. At that time it was just a shell and ready for demolition. Bruce, her husband had the house restored in 2004. Leslie passed away from cancer in 2012 at the age of 67. Once again, the house was completely restored and is now the home of the Superior superintendent of schools. He and his wife had several of Leslie's paintings on display for the tour. It is a two-bedroom, one bathroom, and laundry room on the right and an open living room and kitchen on the left side of the house. I chose not to take photos as there were many people touring this home when we were there. It is a small house and there was not a lot of elbow room. I wish I had taken a photo as i am unable to find any of her paintings using google.

This is the "Big House' built by Paul Besich for his family about 100 years ago. The house is next door to the Little House and was in the Besich family until it was sold to Bruce and Leslie West in 1994. We did not tour this house.



The Recycled House, house #4, was also built by a member of the Besich family in the 1950s. Andy, son of Paul,  did not like to see things go to waste, nor did he like to spend money needlessly. The duplex apartments in what was once known as the Lizard Subdivision, were almost completely constructed from used materials Andy got from the mine.

We toured the home to the left. 

Like many other houses in Superior, the duplexes, there were at least two, also fell into disrepair once the mine closed in the 1980s. The duplexes, or at least this one, was bought by Sue Anderson who completely renovated it and now rents out the apartments. It was on the home tour because of it's interior decor. The current renter continues the theme established by Andy when he built the duplexes: Recycle and Reuse.

 The archway between the dining room and the kitchen: Valerie found the discolored, discarded iron work frame and saw potential. She cleaned and painted it and then continued the flowers around the sides of the doorway.

a close-up of the detail

This is a kneeler Valerie built. The two side posts are table legs. I have forgotten the original use of the base. Some of the kneeler parts came from the local Catholic Church when it was renovated.

 She goes to the dump ground/junk yard to find the bottles for her collection. This was a display on her dining room wall. Some of those bottles were about an inch in height.

 This shadow box of glass bottles was in her east kitchen window. The morning sun sets the room aglow.

 This is her living room window treatment. The large piece is a brown roll-up woven shade.

The triangular piece is a shawl she purchased from a goodwill store.

Homes 5 and 6 will be the next post. You can see that each home had an interesting history as well as a unique style and appearance.

Historical Superior

Sunday was the fifth year of Ladies Day Out. This year we travel to the community of Superior for the Home Tour. Historical has been removed from the title as some of the homes were built more recently. We toured six homes, shopped in one gallery, two eclectic stores, and the old cafe where some local artists were displaying their arts and crafts. The Home Tour is a yearly two day event and a fund raiser for the Superior Chamber of Commerce. 

I found the history of the homes fascinating. Each home had it's own bio sheet and its current owner was on hand to answer questions or share interesting information. On a couple of occasions the five of us were the only ones in the home, at least for a few minutes, so it seemed like we were getting a private tour.

The event was very well organized with signs and maps to help us find our way around the old mining community. I share old mining community because streets start and end wherever, especially in the original or old town. The town, built on a hillside, is like many mining towns I have visited. 

Our first stop was 76 San Pedro Street.

 We entered the home through the carport to the far left and exited through the white door in the pink house. San Pedro Street seemed more like an alley than a city street. In the 1920s and probably as many as 10 years before that, these adobe houses were built for the miners. This row is four homes built next to each other and right next to the street; no room for a sidewalk or yard in the front. Pete Casillas lives in the peaked roof house, #76 and in the next house, #72. His renovations use discarded props from movie sets and re purposed materials from old buildings. We could not take photos inside his home. However, he was very gracious and shared some interesting information regarding his renovations.

This photo is from the bottom of the hill looking north towards Pete's current residence. Pete owns all four houses. As a child he and his nine siblings lived in the home on the right, #66. (It had three more rentals behind it back then, and they were all used by his family as bedrooms.) His grandparents lived in the next house, #70. His grandparents moved to Superior from Mexico in 1920. They originally lived in #66, but moved to #70 when Pete's parents started their family of 10. There are two basements that run the length of the four houses. Pete's father remembers in the 1930s when a family named Cota lived in the house that is now Pete's residence, #76. The Quiroz family lived in the basement under #76 & #72 and keep their burros on the ground level of #72. Mr. Quiroz made a living selling firewood to the families in Superior. He needed the burros to collect and deliver the firewood.

Pete told us to come back in two years. He is expecting to have completed the renovations of his home and that of his grandparents. I am sure I could have taken photos of the back yard, but this was our first home visit and I was not sure of the protocol. His outside space overlooks the mountains to the east and is some of the most inviting space I have seen in AZ. 

I should also add at this point it was confusing to know exactly how many rooms were in each house. I think it would be safe to say that each of the four original row houses had three rooms, one of which was a kitchen. The other two rooms could easily have been bedrooms or possibly a sitting room and a bedroom or as in the case of #72, a kitchen and 4 smaller rooms. (That is the one that was home to the burros in the 1930s.) It was interesting to say the least, both the history and to see what Pete has done to restore the original 'flavor' of the homes.



The second house we visited was 602 Lime Street was in the same neighborhood. It is owned by Charles Davison, an artist, and is also the David Betancourt Gallery.

This one room adobe house was built in 1917. It had a dirt floor, an outhouse, and no electricity. Indoor plumbing and electricity did not come to this part of town until the 1930s or 40s. Some of the homes in this area, like the row houses, "were built to serve the local Mexican and Spanish population who worked in the nearby mine or had supporting shops along Pinal Street". This home like many others had additional rooms built to accommodate growing families.  That was very easy to see in this house. There are two rooms in the front, two smaller rooms in the back and another single room behind it; a triangular house.  It is said a benevolent female spirit watches over this house.

When the current owner began his renovation he found a lot of termite damage, just like in the row houses. Many of these houses have sat empty and neglected for years, open to vandals and critters.

Several art pieces were displayed in the backyard. These are the works of Charles Davison. he uses vivid colors and 

paper and cloth to give his paintings some dimension, and uniqueness.

Some of the extra details from the  three amigos are in the following photos.

one of the belt buckles

buttons on one of the shirts

and beading on one of the hats

All of his paintings appeared to have the additions of paper, fabrics, buttons, beads, etc.

I do not believe this is one of Davison's paintings, but the work of another artist. I like the colors.

Another displayed painting.

Another version of Davison's Native Americans.

This interesting cactus was in the yard of this house.

This little church was also in the neighborhood. We were unsure if it is a church or if it is a private home. 

Some painted details on the door frame of a nearby house. 

This neighborhood appeared to be an 'artsy' part of town, people renovating historical, OLD, houses that have been neglected and abandoned. More of the tour in the next post.

Previous Ladies Day Out adventures:

2013 A Chewing Gum Mansion

2012 Artists Reception in Scottsdale

2011 Musical Instrument Museum

2010 Art Fair in Downtown Mesa