Institution

The auditorium is named for Dr. Grady Gammage, President of Arizona State University (ASU) from 1933 to 1959. The auditorium is located on the main campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, at the crossroads of Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard.The structure measures 300 feet long by 250 feet wide by 80 feet high. Fifty concrete columnns support the round roof with its pattern of interlocking circles. Twin "flying buttress" pedestrian ramps extending 200 feet from the north and east sides of the structure connect the building to the parking lot. The auditorium seats a total of 3,017 people pop on its main floor, grand tier and balcony. The stage can be adapted for grand opera, Broadway musicals, dramatic productions, solo productions, organ recitals and lectures.

ASU President Henry Grady Gammage (1933-1959). Courtesy of ASU

Interior of Auditorium as seen from stage. Courtesy of ASU

Gammage Memorial Auditorium Official Website

Website

Echo Mag out of Phoenix, online article (2014) about the auditorium turning 50

More Info

Grady Gammage- short biography from Northern Arizona University libraries

History of the building taken from the "About/history" section of the official website.

The last publicly-commissioned building by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium is named in honor of a former university president. Groundbreaking for the auditorium took place on May 23, 1962, followed by 25 months of construction. The building opened both on-time and under-budget in 1964 with a performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy.           


Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium

Admin

Originally, Tempe Butte was part of a series of horizontal layers, but the strata has been tilted associated with the formation of South Mountain, and millennia of erosion has created the distinctive hogback of resistant andesite, over sedimentary deposits and rhyolite beds.Despite intensive development, the butte and its immediate surroundings continue to support a variety of native vegetation, including saguaro, Buckhorn Cholla, barrel cactus, creosote bush, palo verde, and mesquite. Native wildlife include jackrabbits, and small desert-adapted species such as pack rats.Signs of early habitation by the Hohokam people have been found on Tempe Butte, including petroglyphs, pot shards, scrapers, and metate. The area just west of the butte would be settled by the 1870s in an area first known as Hayden's Ferry, then a major crossing for the Salt River which flows just north of the butte. The proximity of the community to the butte prompted Darrell Duppa to fancifully compare the area to the Vale of Tempe near Mount Olympus in Greece; therefore, the town was given its present name. The remains of the Hayden Flour Mill (which lends its name to main thoroughfare Mill Avenue) still stand near the western edge of the butte.More recent alterations include two water tanks on the south flank of the butte, and several trails, at least one paved, to provide access to man-made structures. The east side of the butte was partially excavated in order to accommodate the construction of Sun Devil Stadium in 1958. A 50-foot-tall radio tower was built on the top of the mountain in 1962 for the Salt River Project.Recent development along the adjacent stretch of the Salt River (which has been dammed to form Tempe Town Lake) has prompted several grassroots movements to preserve the butte from further environmental damage.Originally, the letter on Tempe Butte was an 'N', built by Tempe Normal School's class of 1918. The school changed its name to Tempe State Teacher's College in 1925, and the 'N' was adapted into a 'T'. Subsequently, three years later, the school would change its name again to Arizona State Teacher's College, but the letter 'A' would not appear on Tempe Butte until 1938. This 'A' was destroyed by a bomb blast in 1952, prompting the construction of the current 'A' in 1955. The letter is made from reinforced steel and concrete, and is an external structure rather than being carved into the mountain or whitewashed directly on the rock.Due to the existence of an "A Mountain" for the University of Arizona (Sentinel Peak), students from these rival schools often attempt to paint the other's 'A' in their school colors. Guarding the A is an annual ritual in the week leading up to the annual ASU-UA football game, the Territorial Cup. The A has been painted in other colors for various causes, and is painted white at the beginning of each school year, but is usually painted Gold, one of ASU's school colors. Most recently, UA students painted the A blue and white following Arizona's victory in the 2011 Duel in the Desert. The A has also been painted colors by other schools, such as green by Oregon Ducks fans and purple by Grand Canyon University fans

This andesite butte is of volcanic origin and located on Arizona State University's Tempe campus. Locals often refer to the butte as "A Mountain," a reference to the 60-foot-tall gold-painted letter 'A' that is made of rock and located near the top of the butte. Another name for the area, used by the City of Tempe, is Hayden Butte. The highest point of Tempe Butte stands at 1,398 feet  in elevation, while its base is at approximately 1,150 feet in elevation. Tempe Butte is most often seen as the backdrop to games held in nearby Sun Devil Stadium.

Tempe Butte/"A" Mountain

The house was built in 1895 as part of the J.W. Harrington homestead.&nbsp;It was built by the Goodwin brothers, who were then operating a brick-making business in Tempe. In 1904, the house was acquired by Mattie Birchett, in the same year that her son, Joseph T. Birchett, married. Mattie, her husband Joseph and their family lived in the home until circa 1920, when Joseph retired from the Birchett Brothers mercantile store for health reasons.After Mattie's death in 1925, the house became a rental property until Joseph T. and Guess Birchett reoccupied it in the early 1930s. Joseph T. was a partner in the mercantile store with his brother John, in addition to owning considerable real estate in the area; he was also a director of the Tempe National Bank and served as mayor of Tempe from 1912 to 1914. Guess was known locally as the "bird-lady" for her research on birds and nature; the&nbsp;United States Fish and Wildlife Service&nbsp;even designated her home as a federally protected bird sanctuary from 1940 to 1970.&nbsp;She was the sister of Honor Anderson Moeur, wife of Governor&nbsp;Benjamin B. Moeur. The family occupied the Harrington-Birchett home because of its proximity to&nbsp;her sister's family's house. She also participated in beautification efforts in the city of Tempe and was named its Centennial Queen in 1971. Guess died in 1979.Ownership of the house passed to&nbsp;Arizona State University&nbsp;when it purchased the property in 1989.&nbsp;As part of improvements to the property related to the development of the College Avenue Commons building to the east, a non-contributing slump block garage built in 1937&nbsp;was demolished.

The Harrington-Birchett House was built as a brick Victorian cottage; however, a 1931 remodeling changed it into a Period Revival-style home with Tudor elements, including the enclosure of the house's porches. The house has an exterior coating of stucco over its brick face. The house features an irregular plan with a steeply pitched hip roof. The front facade has a setback for the central entryway and again on the east end. The doorway is framed by two concrete steps and set into a semi-elliptical arch made of decorative brick. Wood-framed windows are either in double-hung or casement arrangements. A double garage at the rear of the house has two car doors.

Stylistically, the complete transformation of the home's architectural style is "unusual". Currently the house is owned by Arizona State University and stands vacant. 

Harrington-Birchett House (Tempe, AZ)

<div>The congregation dedicated the new church in 1903, and women became the center of the religious community, rearing their children and grandchildren within the church structure. Like many other women in Arizona and the United States, they built their families and communities through their religious connections. The Mexican American women also endured discrimination and segregation in the church, with Anglos filling one side of the pews and Mexican Americans the other.</div><div> </div><div>In 1945, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary arrived from Dubuque, Iowa, to teach school at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. They instructed classes made up primarily of Mexican Americans from Tempe, but there were also Anglo students. Many of the Mexican American youngsters transferred to this school from the Eighth Street School which had originally been a segregated "Mexican School." However, a court case in 1925 resulted in its desegregation. Some Mexican American students still felt the sting of prejudice there and were happy to attend the Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, where they were educated well and treated as equal to the Anglos. The nuns continued to teach in Mount Carmel and the nearby school building, on Sixth and College, until a new school on Rural Road opened in 1960. </div>In 1962, the parish sold its interest in the church to the Newman Catholic Student Center at ASU. Mexican American families continue to attend that church on the northwest corner of University and College, across from the ASU campus, while many Anglo families moved to the new church at 2121 S. Rural Road.

The original St. Mary's chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was located in the area now occupied by the Arizona State University Sun Devil Football Stadium.  Mexican American residents constructed the small adobe building in 1881. As the congregation grew, the Catholic Church purchased additional lots at Eighth Street and College Avenue (now University and College) and constructed a larger church. 

St. Mary's Church

By 1930, the building served as&nbsp;a women's dormitory. When the new library on campus was named the Matthews Library in honor of Dr. Matthews's 30 years as president, the dormitory was renamed Carrie Matthews Hall for the president's wife. (The library became known as Matthews Center upon its conversion in the 1960s.)Matthews Hall is a symmetrical, elongated two-story building with telescoping side wings and sleeping porch bays. The building has a concrete foundation with buff brick facing; the interiors feature wood detailing.&nbsp;The building has extensive Prairie School architectural styling, seen in the building's massing and details, such as broad wooden cornices, Union Jack vent covers, and grouped double-hung windows. The original stairway and living room fireplace remain in the interior.&nbsp;<div>The building also demonstrates the&nbsp;architect's&nbsp;attempt to create a&nbsp;building that would best respond to&nbsp;the Arizona climate. Sleeping spaces project out from the main building to capture nighttime breezes.&nbsp;Some modifications have been made; the sleeping porches have been converted to offices, while modern exit stairs have been added and windows were filled in. </div>

Matthews Hall is the oldest intact dormitory on the Arizona State University campus. Built in 1918, it was designed by L. G. Knipe and dedicated in 1920 as a men's dormitory. It was named for the president of the Tempe Normal School, Dr. Arthur John Matthews. The building currently houses a photography gallery and offices for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.


Matthews Hall (ASU)

Founded in 1950 with a significant gift of American and Mexican artworks purchased by Pheonix resident and lawyer Oliver B. James, the museum grew until it&nbsp;occupied the entire second floor of the Matthews Center with 10,000 square feet of exhibition space by 1978. The Matthews Center was originally a library. A new one was built in 1968, giving the&nbsp;museum room to grow. The current museum was built in 1989.

Established in 1950, the Arizona State University Art Museum houses of 12,000 works art from around the world. The collection is comprised of contemporary, American, and Latin American art, as well as ceramics, prints, and works by regional and emerging artists. The collection of 20th century and contemporary ceramics is one of the largest in the United States. The museum is located in the Nelson Fine Arts Center building, which was designed by famed architect Antoine Predock, who created a museum that reflects the harsh desert landscape in which it is located. The museum features five galleries and three sculpture courts. It also operates the Ceramics Research Center at Brickyard, which features a ceramics studio and exhibition space, and the ASU Art Museum Project Space at Combine Studios (located in downtown), which hosts the museum's international artist residency program.

Arizona State University Art Museum

The President's House was constructed in 1907 to house the university president, and two of the university's most famous presidents lived there: Dr. Arthur Matthews held the title from 1900 to 1930, while Grady Gammage was the university president from the 1940s until 1959. These two presidents shaped the institution, and under Gammage, what was once a normal school became Arizona State University.After 1959, upon Gammage's death, the building was no longer used as the home of the president. It was occupied by the Alumni House, alumni offices, and later by the University Archives, and it currently houses the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.The President's House was the last known design from territorial architect James Creighton, who designed the now-demolished original Normal School buildings. It is also Creighton's lone surviving structure on campus.The building is a two-story Western Colonial brick building with a copper shingle roof. The main house features a two-story bay window on the west and a two-story bay with fireplace on the east. The hipped roof features projecting gables and boxed eaves, while the double-hung windows have segmental arches.In 1931, a bath and two rooms were added to the northwest corner; in 1937, the front porch was enclosed with casement windows.Restoration work that concluded in 2005 restored the building to its original appearance, including the porch, brick exterior and roof. Most interior finishes are original, with minor accommodations to meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The President's House is a historic building on the Tempe campus of Arizona State University that was built in 1907 to serve as the home for the president of what was then known as the Tempe Normal School. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and currently houses the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, known as the Writer's House.

ASU President's House/Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing

The building, designed by D. W. Millard and built by Harvey D. Patton, was constructed in 1909 as one of three original buildings that formed the first quad of the Territorial Normal School in Tempe. (Old Main is the only other building that survives today.) It was originally constructed to house the school's small science department as well as administrative functions.As the normal school grew, the building was soon modified. It was remodeled in 1935 and again in 1950; the latter renovation coincided with the science department moving to a new Sciences Building (now known as Discovery Hall) and the conversion of "Old Science Hall" into the home of Arizona State College's English department. The 1950 addition, with Mel Ensign as architect, added a fire stair and restroom projection and was one of several alterations to the now-historic buildings on campus (around the same time, an expansion was made to Old Main). In the mid-1960s, the English department moved to its own new home: the Language and Literature Building, located across from the Old Science Building on the quad and at the corner of University Drive and College Avenue. Soon after, during the Vietnam War, ROTC programs moved in, and by the 1980s it was known as the "Fine Arts Annex" and housed some arts programs.In the summer of 1983, the School of Art was told that the structure, whose foundation had been damaged by rot and termites, was no longer suitable to be occupied; the building was slated for demolition. However, in the mid-1980s, several university buildings from the 1930s and earlier were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Fine Arts Annex.After the building's designation as historic, renovations were made to remove the 1950 Ensign addition and restore the building to its original appearance. In 1989, the University Club was created as a members-only club for faculty, staff and parents of current ASU students.

The Administration/Science Building, originally known as Science Hall, is a building on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. It is the second-oldest building on campus, constructed in 1909. It currently houses the University Club, a members-only institution open to faculty, staff and community members.

Administration/Science Building (ASU)

Pat Tillman was born on November 6, 1976 in San Jose, California where he was the oldest of three sons to his parents Patrick and Mary Tillman. Pat Tillman attended Leland High School. Tillman helped lead his high school team to championship which helped him land a scholarship to attend Arizona State University. During his time at Arizona State Tillman was known for his on field success but still took pride and excelled in the classroom. In 1997 Tillman won Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year and the ASU MVP of the Year in 1997. Tillman was also rewarded three different academic awards during his time at Arizona State. In the 1998 NFL draft Pat Tillman was selected to the Arizona Cardinals. Tillman was a very successful player for the Cardinals during his short time with the team. Tillman in 2000 set a new team record for tackles in a season. After that season he was offered a much larger contract by the St. Louis Rams and he humbly turned it down to stay loyal to the team that drafted him. After the 2001 season he enlisted into the army after the incident that happened on 9/11. In 2002 Tillman was shot dead. At the time his family was informed that it was enemy fire. Finally after days the family found out the truth that he was killed by friendly fire. It is a shame that this controversy happened, it seems that it has taken some of the light of his story. Even until this day Tillman's mother still does not believe she knows what really happened. She works hard with support from law to look over and the files relating to Tillman to hope to find the truth. Also some the members of the team were interviewed and the story seems sketch. The team was spilt up and some how the enemy got caught in between the two teams. The story that was told to the family was described as an accident but some of the teams story does not sound so. One man talks about how he could hear Tillman after being shot once screaming his name hoping to stop the fire. Also it is described that he had three gun shoots in the head. Seems like the friendly fire could have been prevented to just a wound. Before his death it is told that Tillman was worried that they might use his name as propaganda due to his fame. While that might be the case the fact that Tillman had a worry to the time close of his death is interesting. It was a shame how the whole deal was handled but at least Tillman has a positive remembrance. Tillman legacy lives on a couple different ways. First is this statue that was put up in August 30, 2017. The Tillman tunnel has been around the team for years but was not nearly as nice as the new one. The statue gets to be honored by all the fans at the football and is something Arizona State fans have pride in. But for the players the statue has a deeper meaning. Former head coach Todd Graham use to talk about how Tillman was the prime example of what a man is. Tillman plays a role of role model and is a standard for the football team. The team honors Tillman with different jerseys and patches on their jerseys. The Pat Tillman Foundation also carries on his legacy. They help military families with scholarships and a leadership program. The main event they do is the Pat's Run which is the second biggest military organized run. This run takes place in Tempe and the finish line is at the 42 yard line as you run by the statue. Pat Tillman will always be remembered as a hero and it is nice to see that people work hard to do that. His was not a man who lead by words but example. While the shine was mostly on his football career he still excelled in school and even showed loyalty in the NFL. Tillman is an example of a true American.

The Pat Tillman Statue and Tunnel is located in the north end zone of Sun Devil Stadium. The former Sun Devil was a star on the field and in the classroom. After Tillman was done at Arizona State he did not have to go too far when he was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals. After a couple of years of a successful NFL career, he retired and decided to join the army after what happened on 9/11. Even though Tillman is known for his heroic decision and giving up his career to helping his country he was still just as big of a star and leader on the field.

Walking Tour of Downtown Tempe AZ

Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information