The Valley has a well-earned reputation as a place that doesn't always honor its past. That's evident in the number of historic buildings we've lost over the years and continue to lose.
But KJZZ contributor Robrt Pela has a different story about one beloved spot.
ROBRT PELA: Here’s a bit of news: For once, Phoenix’s long-suffering crew of historic preservationists has scored a victory. The Mystery Castle — that oddball stone-and-scrap fortress perched atop South Mountain — has been spared from demolition.
The Phoenix Mystery Castle was a tourist stop owned and operated by Mary Lou Gulley, who lived there until her death in 2010. Her father had built the house for her in the 1930s — using telephone poles, automobile parts, adobe, stone, and whatever else Boyce Luther Gulley could get his hands on.
After his death in the mid-40s, 'Mary Lou and her mother began offering paid tours of the place. For decades, visitors wandered its rooms, heard its stories, and experienced it as a home shown by the woman for whom it had been built — rather than as a piece of Sonoran history.
After years of neglect and vandalism, the owner of this weird local landmark, who’d inherited it from Mary Lou, threw in the towel. She boarded the joint up in 2024, sold off its contents and filed for a demolition permit.
Local outcry from fans of the place led to a new owner, who recently stepped in with a pledge to preserve the Mystery Castle. The Harrell Family of Companies, which has been involved in other local historical preservation projects, has promised to rehab the castle and once again welcome visitors to its long-dilapidated walls.
Cut to sighs of relief and nostalgic Facebook posts from locals who once toured the Mystery Castle on a fourth-grade field trip.
The new owners have floated the idea of turning the Mystery Castle into a “destination event venue.” OK. But event venues are tidy. They’re designed to be safe, rentable, and photogenic. The Mystery Castle was none of those things. It was precarious and eccentric—a folk-art fever dream made by a guy who wasn’t a builder.
How is the Harrell family going to turn that into an event venue? And if they do, will it still be the Mystery Castle?
I’m reminded of all the nice people in the world who buy old houses for their quaint charm and then rip out all the quaint charm and replace it with granite countertops and open floorplans and ceiling fans because ... I don’t know. Why do people do this? Why not just buy a new house?
The Mystery Castle isn’t a stately Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece or even a Ralph Haver home. It’s a folk-art project made from found objects. To leave it untouched risks further decay. But to “restore” it risks erasing the very improvisation that makes it meaningful.
And, for the millionth time, wouldn’t it be better if we just started appreciating and caring for our local landmarks — even the ones made out of bits of junk? I mean, you know — instead of waiting until they’ve been assigned a date with a wrecking ball before we step in?
A public forum about the Mystery Castle is scheduled for early May, giving Phoenicians a rare chance to help decide if Phoenix wants to be a city that keeps its oddities or one that polishes them into marketable assets.
Will the castle remain a public curiosity? Or will it become a private commodity with occasional public hours?
Phoenix hasn’t historically been great at managing this kind of preservation problem. It’s better with clean slates, made by knocking down old buildings and starting over again with an empty lot. It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of Mystery Castle, and whether its resurrection as a destination will rob it of the very character that made it mysterious.
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