Ever wondered what it was like living in Arizona when it was a territory? Well, there is a place that takes you there.
The Pioneer Living History Museum takes us back into the 1800s. The place is best known as Pioneer Village. Did You Know many of the buildings here are from territorial times?
“Some of these buildings are authentic reproductions and some are original,” said Dave Siebert, the museum’s president.
“We have the original cabin from the first U.S. Senator from the state of Arizona, Henry Ashurst. We have the Flying V Cabin, it was involved in the Pleasant Valley War, and it actually has bullet holes still in it," Siebert said.
Some of the buildings at the 92-acre outdoor museum have been transplanted from around the state. They were built between the 1860s and 1912.
There’s an original log cabin school house and teacherage home from Gordon Canyon. A Victorian house that once stood on 7 th Street near Indian School Road in Phoenix. And the two-story building by the museum entrance was once rented by the Goldwaters as a general store. It was later converted to Prescott’s Opera House. The building was demolished and the materials were brought here to rebuild it, brick by brick, to look as it did in the late 1800s.
“We’re an educational nonprofit. We emphasize teaching Arizona history to Arizona school children, that’s our mission," Siebert said.
Several of the buildings are reproductions, like the Gila County sheriff’s adobe jail. And then there’s the Community Church. It’s a copy of the St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church that stood in Globe from the 1880s until 1927.
“The church would’ve been real but they couldn’t move it because the wood was all rotted. So they had to reproduce it. But when you get south of the church everything is real. You know, you’re seeing a tremendous amount of real history," Siebert said.
There’s one other building with an interesting story. The structural shell of the Phoenix Bakery is here and ready for restoration. Once near Central Avenue and Washington Street, it was the first business in Arizona to introduce the horse-drawn delivery wagon. The building ultimately became the home of Holsum Bakery.