A pair of Arizona properties has landed on the most recent list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. This comes both as federal funding for historic preservation is in question and Arizona preservationists will gather later this week in Phoenix for their annual conference.
Phoenix’s Mystery Castle and Flagstaff’s May Hicks Curtis Home are both on the most endangered historic places list.
While this may sound like a problem, Kathryn Leonard, Arizona’s state historic preservation officer, actually thinks it’s a good thing. Leonard joined The Show to talk more about this.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Kathryn, let’s start with the fact that you’ve been quoted as saying you’re excited about these properties making this list, which seems a little counterintuitive.
KATHRYN LEONARD: I know we always laugh about that every time we see the 11 most endangered come out, myself and other SHIPOs, we're vying for these properties. We want the most endangered to be in our states, and it is counterintuitive, Mark, because, you know, when a property is endangered, generally speaking, the level of care of the property has deteriorated to the point where we're looking at a total loss. That's never a good thing for historic preservation.
But when it's recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, you have that added layer of not only is this property in jeopardy of being a total loss, but this property is recognized at a national level as a must-save property. So for preservationists, there's nothing more than we like than good marketing and good press, and the 11 most endangered list really has proven itself to be a catalyst for investment in properties such as these.
BRODIE: OK, so let's talk about the two Arizona locations on this list. First is the May Hicks Curtis House in Flagstaff, and this house basically belonged to Arizona's version of Betsy Ross, right?
LEONARD: Yeah, it's funny. I don't know who was the first to coin May Hicks as the Betsy Ross of Arizona, but I know that Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who is only a little bit obsessed with this project, has been running around the state with the Arizona 250 Commission talking about the May Hicks House as Betsy Ross of Arizona.
Her family owned a boarding house in the south side of Flagstaff, right along Route 66, and her house was in back of the boarding house, and it's a very modest structure, what we would call a four square structure. And her husband, apparently, had made some, had made some commitments that his wife could sew. And he designed the flag from all accounts, and, and Mays sewed the flag.
BRODIE: Well, and so the other location I think will be familiar to a lot of folks here in the Valley of the Mystery Castle here in Phoenix, and I guess what kind of state is that in? What kind of state is the May Hicks Curtis house? Like are these, are these in particularly bad shape and really at risk of being lost?
LEONARD: Well, the nature of the threats to the two properties are very different. The case with the May Hicks Curtis House is a threat of redevelopment. So this area, the south side of Flagstaff, is an area that is currently plagued by some really serious drainage issues. So there's a good deal of public works projects going on there. And this property, although it is in fair to good condition, is just quite simply in the way. So its preservation is really contingent on finding an appropriate place for it to be, and it's in satisfactory enough condition that it's already up on blocks and ready for a move.
In the case of the Mystery Castle, this is a very unique property. This is a truly one of a kind art piece. The threats to Mystery Castle are really not just deterioration. There are vandalism threats, and so that this is really a property that is looking for stewardship.
BRODIE: So you mentioned that part of the benefit for properties that are on this list is that it, you know, brings them attention, maybe brings them some resources to help bring them back to where they need to be. Given where we are right now in terms of the amount of federal available resources to do stuff like this, are those resources still around? Like where, where are you looking to get money to do what needs to be done for these places?
LEONARD: You know, the public are often calling my office or they'll call like a city Historic Preservation Office when they see a building that they see is in need of care and they want to see a preservation solution applied. But the truth of the matter is that some of our biggest success stories in preservation happen really with the support of private dollars from either foundations, not-for-profits, or even from public fundraising.
And the 11 most endangered, the reason why we as SHIPOs love to see ourselves or our properties on the 11 most endangered list is because it really does the job of bringing to light these important properties that for whatever reason have not been able to garner public money in the form of government funding.
We had some real success in historic preservation with ARPA grants a few years back, but those grants have all been expended and, and ARPA grants saved quite a few properties in Arizona like Camp Naco down in Naco, Arizona, which was also the 11 most endangered as well. But you know, soon after getting that ARPA funding that initially kickstarted the preservation, the Mellon Foundation was quick to come in with an additional $7 million of funds to help program Camp Naco.
And, and that's what we're looking at here is we're looking to basically find a group, it's almost like making a match, a love match, A group that is so enamored of the building that they just can't see a future for Phoenix without it. And I don't want to have any spoilers, but there are a couple of groups that have come forward, and a couple of discussions that have already occurred just this week with regards to the announcement. So I'm feeling really optimistic for both properties.
BRODIE: Do you think this is the future of historic preservation that there will be less and less government funding to help do this and relying more and more on private or philanthropic funding?
LEONARD: Well, you are asking the state historic preservation officer about the future of preservation that does not involve the government. Oh …
BRODIE: Sorry.
LEONARD: … that kills me. It's OK. It's OK. I would be lying if I didn't say we're in some pretty scary times in historic preservation. The National Historic Preservation Act was established in 1966, and its primary intent was to provide a sense of orientation to the American people, the idea being that you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. And the National Historic Preservation Act was groundbreaking in that it established that the government has a role in ensuring that the people of the United States have that basic human right of orientation.
So I think there is absolutely a need for public funding or federal funding of historic preservation. Unfortunately we have seen just in the last weeks some unfortunate news about appropriations of the Historic Preservation Fund, which is the main source of federal funding for state historic preservation officer offices and also for tribal historic preservation offices. The president's executive budget for fiscal year 26 has zeroed out all of the funds that go toward SHIPOs and TIPOs as we call them. So I am concerned, I am very concerned, and we are monitoring the situation.
