Director

The Rowena Theater, located at 81 W. Boston Street in Downtown Chandler, was opened in 1932. It was owned by Joe and Alice Woods, and for many years was the only movie theater in town.People came from all over to see movies at the Rowena. Many bought a hamburger and soda at the café next door before heading to the Rowena for a feature film. Boys shined shoes all day Saturday so they could make enough money to see the show that night.The Woods family eventually owned two more theaters in town – the Parkway Theater (1945-1979) on San Marcos Place, and the Mustang Drive-In (1951-1969) at the corner of Ray Road and Arizona Avenue. The Rowena closed its doors in 1955. In later years, the building has housed various tenants from the Salvation Army, to a specialty glass shop, to a restaurant.*****During the Second World War, Americans across the nation banned together to work for the war effort. Bond drives were organized, everyday items were rationed, victory gardens were planted, and items such as milkweed and scrap metal were collected. In 1944, local Chandler youngsters contributed to the war effort by bringing scraps of metal for recycling to a special matinee at the Rowena Theatre.The Rowena Theatre, located at 81 W. Boston St. in downtown Chandler was in business from 1932-1955. The Joe &amp; Alice Woods family ran three theatres in Chandler from 1932-1979 (Rowena 1932-1955, Parkway 1945-1979, and the Mustang Drive-in 1951-1969).

Phoenix theater owner Bill Menhennet opened this building to house the town’s first “talking movies,” though it also showed silent films, with a score played by a piano player in a loft in the theater.  Joe and Alice Woods purchased the theater in 1932 and renamed it the “Rowena" after Joe's mother.  The Rowena entertained thousands of Chandler residents for several decades.


Menhennet/Rowena Theatre Building

Explore more than a century of Chandler history and enjoy a short walk through Chandler's historic downtown district!

Downtown Chandler Walking Tour

As early as 1920 the townspeople of Chandler petitioned the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for funding to build a jail. At the time, Chandler was paying roughly $700 annually to transport prisoners to Mesa. The Supervisors agreed to the request, and appropriated $5,000 for the construction of a jail to serve the “Chandler District.” After several months of inaction, however, the appropriation was rescinded. In August of 1922, Chandler tried again. This time, the project was expanded to include the jail and other municipal necessities such as offices, courtrooms, and council chambers. After initially turning down the request, the board of supervisors finally agreed to fund half of the project if Chandler, now an incorporated town, agreed to fund the other half. With funding secured, the town turned to the question of where to site the new building. Initially it was believed the City Hall could be built in the southeast corner of the town’s central park. Two weeks later, a committee recommended a site on the eastern side of Arizona Avenue, roughly where City Hall stands today. Ultimately, it was decided that it would be constructed on the northwest corner of Chicago Street and Arizona Avenue. Meanwhile, during the search for a site a separate group of Chandler residents worked to acquire jail cells for the town which could be built into the city hall building. The search ended in Solomonville, the former seat of Graham County. Shortly before the county seat was moved to Safford, a new jail had been built in Solomonville. Now the town had no use for the nearly brand new jail cells and agreed to sell them to Chandler, with the agreement that Chandler would pay to have them moved. During a town council meeting at the end of December, 1922, architect Jacob Knapp was contracted to design the new city hall. Just one week later, Knapp had submitted his plans and the town council opened bids for construction of the new facility. Knapp bragged to the Chandler Arizonan that the building “would be the last word in modern construction….constructed of brick throughout and the highest of concrete brick will be used.” Designed in a Roman classical style, the building featured a court room, offices for the Mayor and city clerk, and the city’s new jail. The ceilings were 12 feet high, with ornamental steel and ceiling fans. The exterior of the building featured broad cornices to shade the windows, and the whole building was to be surrounded by grass and shrubs. By the beginning of February, 1923, the town had received four bids. Unfortunately, all four came in over budget. After making some changes, including lowering the quality of the bricks to be used and decreasing the paint from three coats to two, the town selected W.M. Moore’s $8,000 bid. After three months of construction, the new city hall was dedicated on May 29. At high noon that day a luncheon was served. The entire town was invited to attend for the low price of 50 cents a person. Al Strauss, who was well known in Chandler for playing piano accompaniment with silent movies, was hired to entertain during the luncheon. Afterwards, dignitaries including Mayor George Armstrong, Chamber of Commerce President Art Price, members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Phoenix Mayor Louis Whitney, and Dr. Alexander J. Chandler gave speeches. The Arizonan proclaimed the celebration “one of real joy and the people of Chandler are all for it with a vim that spells success.” Over the decades, City Hall became too small to meet the needs of the growing community. Finally, in 1970 a new municipal complex was designed and constructed on the corner of Buffalo and Delaware Streets. It is believed that the old City Hall was bulldozed into its own basement. All that is left today is a portion of a concrete pad and a lone palm tree that once stood next to the front door.

Chandler incorporate as a town in 1920.  Soon, it became evident that the town needed it's own town hall.  With funding split between Maricopa County and the new town, Chandler's first town hall was built on the northwest corner of Chicago Street and Arizona Avenue.  It served as Chandler's city hall until a larger building opened a couple blocks away in 1970.

Original Chandler City Hall

Chandler has a long history of savvy business people and entrepreneurs dating back more than 100 years. Several of those early entrepreneurs started businesses that are still familiar to us today. Foremost among those businesses is Arizona’s hometown grocery, Bashas’. The story of the Basha family in Arizona begins with Najeeb Basha and his wife Najeeby moving to Arizona at the suggestion of Najeeby’s sister. The Bashas, who were Lebanese immigrants living in New York City, had heard of wealth to be made in the mining towns of Arizona. Desiring a change of pace from the urban lifestyle, they sold their New York business and opened a general store in Ray, Arizona. They soon had a thriving business. Unfortunately, an arsonist burned down a large portion of Ray, including the Basha store. Not to be deterred, the Bashas moved down the road to Sonora, where they opened another general store. Somewhat improbably, that store was also destroyed by fire. Having had enough of mining town life by this time, Najeeb and Najeeby moved the family to the small town of Chandler. They bought property for a store on Boston Street and property for a house on Washington Street. The store was just west of Washington Street on the south side of Boston. Though the building no longer stands, the cement pad still sits next to today’s SoHo 63. Najeeby ran the Chandler store, which opened in 1920 and sold only dry and household goods. After noticing that the Chinese grocery store across the street run by George Y. Wah had great success selling food, the Basha family eventually decided they should diversify and include food in their store offerings. Najeeb spent a good deal of time in Sonora rebuilding and running the store there. Though the Basha family ran two stores during that time, it was another 12 years before the Bashas’ name would appear. By 1932, they had closed the store in Sonora. That same year, Najeeb, who suffered from diabetes, passed away. The family, saddled with medical bills, desperately looked for new sources of income. At first they tried to supplement their income by selling produce grown in their yard, and driving to the reservation to sell dry goods to people who did not have transportation. Soon, a new opportunity presented itself. The managers of a large cotton ranch which had once been run by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company were looking for someone to run a grocery store and post office where their employees could cash in their pay coupons and buy supplies. Two sons, Ike and Eddie, latched onto the opportunity and opened the store. It was an immediate success, and it became the first Bashas’ grocery store. Bashas’ took off from there. From their store in old Goodyear, now known as Ocotillo, they traded frequently with the Pima Indians, working hard to meet the needs of the people living on the reservation. Their first expansions were in towns like Eloy and San Tan, locations from which they could better serve their Pima customers.By the mid-1950s, grocery stores were turning to the modern supermarket model, and Bahsas’ was quick to adopt the new format, opening Bashas’ #1 on the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Arizona Place in Downtown Chandler in the early 1950s. The brand grew from there, eventually growing to over 160 stores across the state.  Basha’s continues to be headquartered in Chandler. The corporate offices are still located in the original Bashas’ grocery in Ocotillo. Though the Great Recession and a bankruptcy filing forced some consolidation of the company, Bashas’ continues to be a household name in Arizona.

Lebanese immigrants Najeeb and Najeeby Basha arrived in Arizona in the late 1910s and set up a dry goods store in eastern Arizona mining towns.  After suffering two different fires, they moved their family to Chandler and set up a dry goods store on the southwest corner of Boston and Washington Streets.  It was the start of a grocery empire.

Basha Dry Good Store

Family owned businesses like Bashas’ and Saba’s Western Wear have been at the core of Chandler’s economy. While some are still around today doing the same business that they always have, some have disappeared and others significantly changed. One of these family business that has changed with the times, but continues to thrive today and is the oldest family owned business in Chandler, Serrano’s. The Serrano family traces its history back to Altar, Sonora, Mexico, where its modern founder, Luis Serrano, was an astute, successful businessman. Luis owned a bank, a general store, a stake in a gold mine, and ranch properties. When the Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, he decided to send his family to Tucson for their safety, while he stayed in Sonora to look after his business interests. This arrangement lasted a year before he sold all his interests and joined his family in Tucson.In 1919, two of Luis’ sons, Albert and Luis, left Tucson and headed for Chandler, where they intended to open a clothing store. They had heard Chandler was experiencing a development boom fueled by high cotton prices, and they wanted to be a part of it. Albert and Luis opened their clothing store, which they named The Popular Store, on Arizona Avenue just south of Boston Street with about $10,000 worth of stock. One year later, they moved into a building on Boston Street which would be home to The Popular Store for decades. The Serranos prospered in the clothing business. In 1923 they expanded into Gilbert, followed a few years later by expansions into Casa Grande, Coolidge, and Mesa. The Serranos wove their business into the fabric of these farming communities by extending credit to local farmers when they experienced a dry season and the farmers weren’t able to pay their bills until the following year. These lines of credit were a welcomed assistance and helped many families get through some very tough years.Albert sold the business to two of his sons, Ernie and Rudy, in 1959. Always looking for new opportunities, the brothers decided to expand the family’s business ventures by opening a department store. Located in Phoenix at 32nd Street and Indian School, this store quickly became a success as well. By 1969, after closing some of the smaller clothing stores, they opened an additional department style store in an old JC Penney building in downtown Mesa. The department store business seemed to be a good one for the family. Unfortunately, the opening of Mesa’s TriCity Mall had a negative impact on the Serrano department store business. TriCity was the first enclosed shopping center in the East Valley. It boasted several large retailers as anchors, including two large national department stores. The Serranos couldn’t compete on that scale. According to a 2005 oral history from Ernie Serrano, Jr., “the Mesa store lost a lot of business to TriCity…..and it really put a strain on the business.” The Mesa store closed in 1974. Three years later the Phoenix store closed as well. All that remained was the family’s original venture, The Popular Store on Boston Street. Fate took a turn for the better for the Serranos in 1979. Ernie Serrano, Jr., described what happened this way: “In 1979, my uncle Albert Serrano owned a restaurant where the Yorktown [Restaurant] was and he was complaining to my dad in the alley one day about really having a tough time. The restaurant had been vacant for a couple of years and he was paying the mortgage on it. He had had quite a few people try to make [the restaurant work] and just couldn’t. My dad said, ‘Why don’t you open a Mexican restaurant?’ And [uncle Albert] said, ‘No way. If you would like to do it, you’re welcome to it. You just make the mortgage payments.’ And that’s how my parents got started in the restaurant business.” After two years of operating a restaurant and the clothing store, the Serranos finally closed The Popular Store in 1981 and focused on the restaurant business. Running the restaurant was truly a family affair. Ernie, Jr., would bartend and close the restaurant once a week while attending school. On Friday and Saturday nights there was dancing. Ernie, Jr., said of those nights, “…on these Friday and Saturday nights, Mom collected money at the door and Dad acted as the bouncer.”The restaurant business slowly picked up, and by 1985 they were able to expand into Tempe. Soon, people from miles around were traveling to Serrano’s for their famous bean dip. The nineties and two thousands saw the by-now very popular Mexican restaurant expand to the sizable enterprise it is today. Despite hardships and the near death of the local department store industry, the Serrano family endured. Today, after 96 years, their business is the longest continuously operated family owned business in Chandler.

In the store front on the left, brothers Albert and Luis Serrano sold clothing and shoes here until the late 1970s, when the independent department store was no longer sustainable.  After closing Serrano's Popular Store, they opened a Mexican restaurant.  Between 1920 and the 1960s, the building on the right served as a bakery and the popular Chandler Café. 


Serrano's Popular Store Building

The first building we come to on the end is the Arrow Pharmacy building, which was built in 1918, once again, by David A. Jacobson. This building has, until recently, continually housed the Arrow Pharmacy since the time it was built. Jacobson leased the property to John B. “Doc” Weber, the town’s favorite pharmacist, who operated Weber’s Arrow Pharmacy for years. Despite being only a pharmacist, they called him “Doc” because he would often tend to their more basic medical needs. Children with scraped knees would stop in and Weber would bandage them up. Kids often stopped here for a Coca-Cola, which only cost a nickel. A 1924 ad for the Arrow Pharmacy in the Chandler Arizonan boasted “Our soda fountain service is unexcelled. Our soft drinks made famous by Weber’s Arrow Root Beer.” In 1948, the building was combined with the Reliable Hardware building next door. It has had many owners through the years, but every one of them kept the Arrow name. After over 85 years of service to the Chandler community, the doors closed for the first time in July 2005. In fall 2006, a remodeling project began on the combined Arrow Pharmacy and Reliable Hardware buildings and the space was subdivided into multiple suites.

While former Mayor David Jacobsen built the structure, it was John “Doc” Weber who opened his pharmacy here in 1920 and named it Arrow Pharmacy. The pharmacy had many owners over the decades, but each one kept the “Arrow” name.  Chandler residents shopped and drank sodas here for 85 years. 


Arrow Pharmacy Building

The First National Bank opened on Boston Street on February 24, 1920. It was the second bank to open in the tiny town of Chandler and cost approximately $20,000 to build. The bank was organized by John Dobson, who served as President, and John Andersen, who served as Vice President, and it had a capital of $50,000. When the Great Depression hit, the First National Bank merged with the Bank of Chandler in an effort to remain solvent. The effort failed and the bank closed. In 1936, the ValleyNational Bank opened a branch in the First National Bank building and remained there for many years.  In recent years the building has housed a winery and a restaurant. The original bank safe still remains in the back of the restaurant.

John Dobson and John Andersen established the First National Bank in 1919. It was the second bank in town after the Bank of Chandler, operated by Dr. A.J. Chandler.  Dobson and Andersen designed the brick building in a Neo Classical style with columns, which makes it unique in Downtown Chandler, where most of the other buildings exhibit characteristics of mission revival style architecture.  


First National Bank Building

David Saba, Sr., an immigrant from Lebanon, arrived in California in 1913 and started peddling goods to gold camps and ranches across the state. In 1916, he moved to Arizona, and opened a mercantile store in Ray-Sonora. Three years later he sold his share of the store and moved to Chandler.  Saba continued to peddle wares to mining camps across Arizona, but by 1927 he had saved enough money to open a store of his own in Chandler specializing in western wear.  The store later moved into the old JC Penney’s building on Boston Street, where it remains today. Saba’s Western Wear has grown into a chain of 9 stores throughout the Valley and Flagstaff.

The Friedberg Building has long been home to clothing stores since it was built.  In 1918, merchant Joseph Friedberg opened a new store specializing in clothing, hats, and shoes.  In later years, a J.C. Penney Company department store occupied this building.  Saba's Western Wear moved into the building in 1972.


Friedberg Building

The Rowena Theater, located at 81 W. Boston Street in Downtown Chandler, was opened in 1932. It was owned by Joe and Alice Woods, and for many years was the only movie theater in town. People came from all over to see movies at the Rowena. Many bought a hamburger and soda at the café next door before heading to the Rowena for a feature film. Boys shined shoes all day Saturday so they could make enough money to see the show that night. The Woods family eventually owned two more theaters in town – the Parkway Theater (1945-1979) on San Marcos Place, and the Mustang Drive-In (1951-1969) at the corner of Ray Road and Arizona Avenue. The Rowena closed its doors in 1955. In later years, the building has housed various tenants from the Salvation Army, to a specialty glass shop, to a restaurant. ***** During the Second World War, Americans across the nation banned together to work for the war effort. Bond drives were organized, everyday items were rationed, victory gardens were planted, and items such as milkweed and scrap metal were collected.  In 1944, local Chandler youngsters contributed to the war effort by bringing scraps of metal for recycling to a special matinee at the Rowena Theatre.The Rowena Theatre, located at 81 W. Boston St. in downtown Chandler was in business from 1932-1955. The Joe &amp; Alice Woods family ran three theatres in Chandler from 1932-1979 (Rowena 1932-1955, Parkway 1945-1979, and the Mustang Drive-in 1951-1969).

The two-story building at 28 South San Marcos Place, presently El Zocalo Mexican Grille, is the Monroe Building. It was originally built as a meeting hall for the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber met upstairs and the lower floors were leased to stores. Merchant E.W. Monroe, after whom the building is named, leased the first floor for the Monroe Hardware Company, Chandler’s first hardware company. Use by the Chamber of Commerce was short-lived as, in 1915, the space was converted into Chandler’s first movie theater, where silent pictures were shown. In 1919, the second floor was converted into offices for Chandler’s first attorney Arthur E. Price, after whom Price Road is named. In 1925, Monroe Hardware vacated the bottom floor and the “Pay-N-Takit” grocery moved in. There’s a photo of the Pay-N-Takit counter on the fourth page of your guidebook. In its ads, Pay-N-Takit boasted of “Reputation, Quality and Price.” A bag of flour cost just 35 cents here in 1924. Pay-N-Takit was unique in that you would go in and tell a cashier behind the counter what you needed and he would get it for you. In 1929, Pay-N-Takit closed and Piggly-Wiggly moved in. During World War II, the Chandler Improvement Company turned the old Monroe building into a recreation center for servicemen. Then, as the war came to a close in 1945, Joe and Alice Woods, proprietors of the Rowena Theater on Boston Street (which we will see soon) bought the building from Dr. Chandler’s Improvement Company and applied to the federal government for additional supplies to build a second theater to support the huge number of GIs coming from Williams Air Force Base to see movies. It was approved, and the couple built the 740-seat Parkway Theater, one of the longtime staples of downtown Chandler. Alice Woods recalled, “After we built the Parkway Theater in 1945, it was a beautiful, elegant theater, and the guests at the San Marcos usually came to the movie on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. They came after dinner…and I remember my husband always reserved a row of seats in the back for these people. It was wonderful to see them because they dressed for dinner, the men in their tuxedos, the women with their beautiful gowns and their fur coats and their jewels.” General admission at the Parkway was just 42 cents in 1945—36 cents for a serviceman in uniform. In the late 40s or early 50s, the Parkway was the site of one of the first moves against segregation in Chandler. By custom at the time, whites would sit in one section of the theater and other races would sit in other sections. One day a group of minorities decided to sit in the white-only section and refused to move, thus bringing about a quiet end to segregation in Chandler’s theaters. Perhaps ironically, in its final 5 years of operation, the Parkway showed Spanish language movies that were popular among migrant workers. The Woods family closed the theater and sold the building in 1979.

Originally built in 1912, this two-story building included an open arcade with small shops on the ground floor, such as the Monroe Hardware Store. Offices and meeting rooms for the Chandler Chamber of Commerce were located upstairs. This building is best known as the Parkway Theatre, where Chandler residents watched movies from 1945 until 1979. 


Monroe Building

The following events took place in 1932 in the Bank of Chandler Building, when Clarence Baldwin, a nephew of Dr. Chandler and a clerk at the money exchange housed in that building, was kidnapped: It was shortly after midday on a hot July afternoon in 1932 when Clarence A. Baldwin, manager of the Southside Investment Corporation money exchange in Chandler, rose to greet two men who entered the business. Baldwin, a nephew of Dr. A. J. Chandler, thought he recognized one of the men as a former acquaintance, and reached out his hand in greeting. But the man wasn’t who he thought he was, and events quickly cascaded into a nightmare for Baldwin and led to a statewide manhunt. Baldwin quickly became aware of his mistake. The men drew handguns, and one said “You’ve got the wrong name, we’re holdup men, give us your money.” While one man pointed his gun at Baldwin through the teller window, the other made his way behind the counter to get the money. He scooped $354 worth of rolled silver coins into sacks. When Baldwin informed them that was all the money there was, they ushered him out of the building and into a Ford V-8 sedan idling in the street with a third accomplice, a getaway driver. The car sped around the downtown park, and headed west on Cleveland Street, today’s Chandler Boulevard.  The only witness to the currency exchange robbery and kidnapping was sixteen year old Forrest Brooks. Brooks immediately informed Town Marshall W. A. McGaughey of what he had seen. McGaughey and Constable C. V. Southard stopped at the exchange before heading out in pursuit of the criminals. Unfortunately for Baldwin, McGaughey and Southard headed the wrong direction on Arizona Avenue and ended up in Mesa before calling off the pursuit. Several miles west of town the bandits stopped the car. There, they transferred their guns and money into a second getaway vehicle before getting in themselves. During the course of the drive west, the men had blindfolded Baldwin. Now, they threatened to tie him up and leave him in the Ford V-8. Baldwin convinced them not to tie him up, as long as he kept the blindfold on while the men made their getaway. After they had driven away, Baldwin removed the blindfold, got out of the car, and found his bearings. Discovering where he was, he made his way across two miles of open desert to the Kessler Store, where he called the authorities. Word of the brazen robbery and kidnapping spread quickly, and a statewide manhunt commenced. Two days later, on July 28th, Pima County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Jack Collins and another suspect in the post office in Tucson on suspicion of robbing the currency exchange and kidnapping Baldwin. Sixteen year old Brooks was rushed by Marshall McGaughey to Tucson where he was able to identify both suspects. Baldwin also positively identified Collins as his kidnapper. An arraignment was scheduled for August 8.At the arraignment, spectators packed the courtroom to watch the proceedings. Defense attorney Jacob Morgan represented Collins, while the case was prosecuted by Deputy County Attorney John W. Corbin. They called only two witnesses: Forrest Brooks and Clarence Baldwin. Upon examination, inexplicably neither one could positively identify Collins on the stand. On those grounds, and due to a lack of other evidence, Justice of the Peace Maude S. Sparks ordered Collins to be released and charges against him to be dropped. No charges were ever filed against the second suspect. A third suspect, who had been held on suspicion of being the getaway driver, was also never charged with the crime.

The Bank of Chandler shared this building with the Chandler Improvement Company until 1925.  The Chandler Improvement Company sold parcels of Dr. Chandler’s 18,000 acre ranch from this site.  Valley National Bank heavily remodeled this building in 1954. 


The Bank of Chandler Building

The 1911 completion of Roosevelt Dam seemed to ensure a steady supply of water for the valley. Dr. Alexander J. Chandler and his business partners realized that the 18,000 acres of Chandler Ranch would be much more valuable as real estate than farm land. They hatched a plan to create a new community on the south side of the Salt River that would become known as Chandler. At the center of this new town would be a grand resort hotel, the likes of which Arizona had never seen. That hotel would become the San Marcos Hotel. Dr. Chandler was interested in opening a hotel for more than a decade. He originally planned the grand resort to be constructed in Mesa, but for various reasons those plans fell through. Dr. Chandler then turned his eye towards Chandler Ranch as a location for the resort. His development company, the Chandler Improvement Company, funded the construction of the hotel. He selected a California architect, Arthur Burnett Benton, as the man to design the crown jewel of his empire. Benton was noted for his love of California missions, and his work on the Mission Inn in Riverside, CA. He designed the hostelry in a style known as Mission Revival, reflected in the building’s arched windows and doorways, and its centralized courtyard.  Dr. Chandler wanted the building to be fireproof. The resulting steel reinforced concrete building was the first of its kind in Arizona. Dr. Chandler hired the Los Angeles firm of C. B. Weaver Construction to build the hotel, a company that Benton had hired at the Mission Inn. Work began in the summer of 1912, and Dr. Chandler hoped that the hotel would open that fall.  Unfortunately, the chosen method of construction delayed the project. Rock and cement were shipped form far and wide to the townsite to make the concrete. However, there simply wasn’t enough steel rebar to complete the project in a timely manner. Despite shipping the rebar from as far away as Pueblo, CO, construction dragged into 1913. To add to the challenge of construction, the Pacific Fireproofing Co. installed the Kohn system of fireproofing, a series of metal and plaster partitions, which added more construction time and labor to the project. Work progressed in stops and starts under three separate superintendents of construction, William R. Hoag, Harry S. Jennings, and Joe Cashman. Slowly the facility with its distinct ribbed ceilings that maximized its strength rose out of the desert. Local bricks from the Chandler Brickyard, were made specifically for the San Marcos. Miles of copper wiring and more than 1,500 electric lights would ensure that the building, the first in Chandler to be electrified, would glitter throughout the day and night. All of the electrical systems were also constructed of state of the art fireproof conduit by chief electrician S. S. Bradley, which added another layer of complexity to the project.  Finally, on November 22, 1913, the San Marcos Hotel opened for business with much fanfare and a grand opening celebration. Five hundred people attended, including Vice President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_R._Marshall" target="_blank" style="background-color:white;color:windowtext;">Thomas Marshall</a>, Arizona Governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.P._Hunt" target="_blank" style="background-color:white;color:windowtext;">George W. P. Hunt</a>, and Representative <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Hayden" target="_blank" style="background-color:white;color:windowtext;">Carl Hayden</a>. Though it took a much longer to construct than he hoped, the hotel became Dr. Chandler’s home and he lived on its grounds until his death in 1950. Since its opening, this shining jewel has been the center of downtown Chandler and an important part of our community. I am sure that the good doctor would be pleased that it was still a vibrant part of the dynamic community that bears his name. ***** Golf has long played an important role in Arizona’s economy. Historians believe that the first course in the state, the Phoenix Country Club, opened in 1889. Arizona’s first tournament was held there on February 22, 1900. Chandler’s golf history goes back more than a century, to 1913 and the opening of the San Marcos Hotel. The golf course was located across Arizona Avenue from the hotel near the railroad tracks at the intersection of present day Delaware Street and Commonwealth Avenue. The course, designed by Will H. Robinson and Harry Collis, sported a clubhouse a mere stone’s throw from the railroad depot. Will Robinson was a prolific author who wrote short stories for magazines and published several novels. His wife, Grace, an important figure in her own right, was the first general manager of the hotel. Grace was hired away from her position as manager of Scottsdal’es Ingleside Inn to become the San Marcos’ first general manager. When she moved to Chandler in 1913 to start her new job, Will came with her bringing his considerable talents and energy. Will wrote all of the newspaper columns and advertisements promoting the San Marcos. Robinson teamed with Harry Collis to design the 100 acre San Marcos course. The two met at the Ingleside Inn where both were golf pros. Collis was an expert at golf course design, having built some of the most famous courses in the country, most notably the Homewood Country Club in Flossmoor, Illinois. In addition, he was a masterful greenskeeper, patented a turf cutting machine, and developed the popular Flossmoor Bent putting green grass. Collis, one of the original snowbirds, spent his summers working at Homewood and wintered in Chandler. The San Marcos course was laid out in August 1913. It sat on land that, according to Robinson, was ideally situated for a golf course.   Robinson and Collis included cotton seed oil greens, sand traps, and even water hazards in their design. By the fall of 1914, the second season of golf at the San Marcos teed off. Collis came back to the San Marcos as the course pro, and he brought with him noted golf club designer Emil Duwe. Collis and Duwe opened a pro shop in the San Marcos arcade where Duwe fabricated clubs. The store boasted “as complete a line of clubs as can be found in any similar establishment in the country.”  The store supplied clubs to other courses in the Valley, including Phoenix Country Club and the Ingleside. Duwe also made a custom set of clubs for town founder and owner of the San Marcos, Dr. Alexander J. Chandler, a few of which reside at the Chandler Museum. In addition to the shop, Collis and Robinson made a notable change by planting Bermuda grass on the golf course and installing irrigation, making the San Marcos the first grass golf course in the state. They had an innovative plan to keep the grass short: they employed a flock of sheep to eat it, ensuring that the grass would stay short and thick. The golf course remained popular for thirteen years. By 1926, Chandler’s ostrich herd by the hotel was gone and the hotel was looking to expand. A new plan for downtown Chandler was laid out by Charles Chaney, and as part of the redesign the course was moved to its present location west of the hotel. Over the years the course has been enjoyed by thousands of golfers and has played host to countless tournaments. The course record is held by Johnny Quarty, the son of the hotel’s former owner. ***** The San Marcos hotel opened in November 1913 with great fanfare, national media attention, and a VIP guestlist a full 500 names long that included leading businessmen and politicians of the time. The luxurious hotel was certainly the gem of early Chandler, despite only being open during the cooler months of the year. It took an awful lot of steam heat to keep the big concrete building warm, especially on the coldest nights of the year. In order to make sure that the wealthy guests at his hotel stayed comfortable, Dr. Alexander J. Chandler had a massive oil furnace installed in the basement of the San Marcos. The giant furnace, in shape and size not unlike a steam locomotive, was installed more than 20 feet below ground in a subbasement of the hotel, and the rest of the structure was built around it. The smoke stack measured 8 feet by almost 10 feet wide, and towered 30 feet above the rest of the hotel. Clearly this was a machine designed to produce an enourmous amount of steam heat, more than was required of the original 30 guest rooms. In fact, it had been designed to support a hotel more than twice the size of the San Marcos. Original plans for the hotel called for several stories. Only the first two were built in 1913, with the intention of adding more later. But the original furnace had to be large enough to accommodate the entire building, as it would be impossible to expand it once the hotel was built around it. The size and strength of the furnace was never mentioned in newspaper articles or literature promoting the hotel. This was most likely because Dr. Chandler was promoting the hotel as the place “where summer spends the winter.” He didn’t want his out of state guests to think about cold desert nights, only sunshine and warmth. Nonetheless, a four line note in the January 2, 1914, edition of the local Chandler Arizonan newspaper stated that the 2 month old hotel was installing a concrete oil tank to store fuel oil for the furnace. The new tank would be 18 feet deep. The furnace heated not only the main hotel building, but also buildings on other properties which belonged to the San Marcos. The Suhuaro Hotel, built across Buffalo Street from the San Marcos, was heated by the furnace. Tunnels under the street carried hot air to the Suhuaro.Advancements in technology made the San Marcos’ oil furnace obsolete after 20 years. By the mid-1930s, natural gas was popular and had made its way to Chandler. Private residences, businesses, and even the beautiful San Marcos hotel converted to natural gas.  In a June 1936 article, Carl Eckholm, who had taken over operations of the Chandler Improvement Company from Dr. Chandler, crowed about the progress made by installing natural gas. He stated “The inconvenient method which is now necessary to heat the boiler in the San Marcos heating plant will be eliminated. This year with the advent of clean and convenient natural gas. Almost since the founding of the San Marcos it has been necessary to burn wood, coal, and kindling for nearly 24 hours in the hotel’s furnace in order that it might be heated to a degree to handle fuel oil. This year, with natural gas, the entire job can be done in an instant. And that is not all. The worry of the fuel supply will be over. The capacity of our fuel tank is limited. The supply of natural gas is unlimited. We’ll light the furnace about November 15 and forget it until closing time in the spring.” It would have the additional benefit of keeping the hotel clean –soot build up from the oil furnace had ruined furniture on the sun porch on numerous occasions. The oil furnace was never used again after natural gas was installed at the hotel in 1936. It was far too large to be removed, so walls were built around it. To this day, however, it sits in the basement of the hotel, a forgotten monument to the founding of the San Marcos, and a source of myths about gangsters using its ventilation shafts as escape tunnels.

The San Marcos Hotel was envisioned as the anchor of the new town of Chandler when it was founded in 1912.  Designed by architect Arthur Burnett Benton, the mission revival style hotel drew wealthy people from across the country who wished to spend their winters in a warm climate.  After it opened on November 22, 1913, the San Marcos was billed as "the place where summer spends the winter."  For the first few decades of the hotel's existence, it catered to celebrities, wealthy businessmen, politicians, and royalty.  By the middle of the century, its business model had changed, and the hotel welcomed more convention business.  After the death of the hotel's owner, John Quarty, in 1979, the San Marcos closed for several years.  It reopened in 1986, catering to tourists and people traveling on business.  It remains the anchor of Chandler's downtown shopping, dining, and entertainment district.

The San Marcos Hotel

Have you ever been in Downtown Chandler and wondered what the Alamo-looking building on Buffalo Street is? It’s origins are tied closely to two other buildings in our city’s Downtown area. The opening of the San Marcos in 1913 was a huge success. It was so successful, in fact, that within a few short years the town had a need for more hotel and recreational facilities. To meet the new demand, Harry J. Collis, the golf pro at the San Marcos who had designed the hotel’s links, and William H. Robinson, an author whose wife, Grace, was the first San Marcos general manager, planned the new building. They built the Suhwaro Hotel directly across Buffalo Street from the San Marcos Hotel lobby. The Suhwaro was a two story building. The first floor was designed as a clubhouse with two bowling alleys, billiard room, ice cream parlor, and a refreshment room “where cooling but innocuous liquids will be served.” The second floor contained nine sleeping rooms and suites. Each room had a sleeping porch, and they all opened into a common “assembly parlor.” The Suhwaro was designed by the Phoenix architectural firm of Creighton &amp; McDonald. Creighton was a prominent architect in the Valley. He designed many private residences, most notably the Peterson House in Tempe, as well as Old Main on the campus of Arizona State University. Creighton and McDonald designed the Suhwaro in the Mission Revival Style of architecture, which is why it bears a resemblance to the Alamo. It is unknown why the hotel bore the phonetic spelling of “saguaro” as its name. Ground was broken on the new hotel in April of 1916, with the hopes that it would be completed for the start of the tourist season that fall. W. P. Pleasant was the general contractor, with C. Harvey and Sons doing the brick work, D. H. Burtis the plumbing, Bertram Brothers doing the electrical work, and Burt Snyder doing the painting and decorating. By the end of November the bowling alleys were being installed by Brunswick. The company boasted that there were few finer lanes on the West Coast than the ones installed in the Suhwaro. In preparation for the completion of the lanes, a bowling team was organized. For several years, the hotel operated on a seasonal basis, with just a few rooms rented during the summer months, but full during the tourist season. To accommodate more guests, in 1919 the downstairs amusement center was disassembled and converted into more sleeping rooms. A portion remained for a “Native American basket room,” which claimed to have the best collection of baskets in the state. Starting in 1924, Robinson leased the hotel to the San Marcos for housing for their wait staff. By 1937, the San Marcos purchased the Suhwaro outright. The Suhwaro hosted a number of businesses and enterprises, including barber shops, restaurants, a tire repair shop, and even housed the vintage car collection of John Quarty, a later owner of the San Marcos. After Quarty’s death, his widow, Angelle, became the sole owner of the Suhwaro. In 1993, it was acquired by former Chandler mayor Jerry Brooks, and he restored it to its original historic character.

The San Marcos Hotel, across the street from the Suhwaro Hotel, was a huge success.  The new town of Chandler found itself in need of additional hotel spaces almost immediately.  Originally opened as an affordable option to the San Marcos Hotel, the Suhwaro was later used as a boarding house for San Marcos employees. The curving Mission Revival style façade imitates the design of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. 


Downtown Chandler Walking Tour

Menhennet/Rowena Theatre Building

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context