Arizona Pioneers' Home

In the early 20th century, the idea for a retirement home in the Arizona Territory originated with three prominent Arizonans: Major A. J. Doran, a judge and territorial representative; rancher Johnny Duke; and businessman Frank M. Murphy, the brother of former Arizona territorial governor Oakes Murphy. They thought that Arizona should provide a rest home for aging settlers who moved to Arizona to help establish the area.{{cite news |url=http://www.trivalleycentral.com/articles/2010/07/31/trivalley_dispatch/top_stories/doc4c4f1a3393c6a708069644.txt |title=Celebrating 100 years: Arizona Pioneers' Home plans open houses |date=July 28, 2010 |last=Cowling |first=Mark |work=Tri-Valley Dispatch}} Doran sponsored a bill to fund the idea, presented to the 24th Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1907, but it was not passed. Journalist Sharlot Hall handled clerical duties regarding the bill.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RSGskuu34GkC&pg=PA41 |page=41 |title=More than petticoats: Remarkable Arizona women |last=Brown |first=Wynne |publisher=Globe Pequot |year=2003 |isbn=0-7627-2359-9}} Submitted again in 1909, both houses of the legislature passed the bill, and Territorial Governor Joseph Henry Kibbey signed the bill into law on March 11, 1909. Sited on a prominent granite hill overlooking Prescott's town square, Murphy put up {{convert|4.5|acre}} of his land for the building. Judge T.G. Norris later donated adjacent land for expansion.{{cite news|url=http://www.minersnews.com/FebMar2010/AZPioneers.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130128231635/http://www.minersnews.com/FebMar2010/AZPioneers.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2013-01-28 |title=Arizona Pioneers Home Open to Arizona Miners |last=Hough |first=Harold |work=Miners News |date=February–March 2010 }} To design the building, a female architect was selected: W.S. Elliott of Prescott, who had come to prominence for her work on St. Joseph's Academy.{{cite web |url=http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/st-josephs-academy-remembered-and-reunited/ |title=St. Joseph's Academy: remembered and reunited |last=Domitrovits |first=Kathleen Stack |publisher=Sharlot Hall Museum |date=July 30, 2006 |access-date=January 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111031230339/http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/st-josephs-academy-remembered-and-reunited/ |archive-date=October 31, 2011 |url-status=dead }} The three-story retirement home, built of brick with wooden porticos, was completed at a cost of $25,000. Doors opened on February 1, 1911, with Doran as supervisor. Doran presided for the first year, during which time Arizona became a state.

When first built, the rest home could hold 40 men. It was open to destitute men who were at least 60 years old and who had been living in Arizona for 25 years.{{cite web|url=http://www.azph.gov/PDF/Bill2_1909.pdf |title=An Act To Establish A Home For Aged And Infirm Arizona Pioneers |publisher=Arizona Pioneers' Home |year=1909 |access-date=January 19, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120416085853/http://www.azph.gov/PDF/Bill2_1909.pdf |archive-date=April 16, 2012 }} In 1916, a private endowment provided for expansion with a women's wing added to house 20 women. The building was opened to disabled miners in 1927.

Big Nose Kate, born Mary Katherine Horony, was admitted to the home in 1931 after six months of applications, finally appealing successfully to her longtime friend, governor George W. P. Hunt. Kate, once the common-law wife of Doc Holliday and later the wife of blacksmith George M. Cummings, had first gained notoriety as the madam of a brothel. She stayed at the rest home until her death in 1940 at the age of 90.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/womenofwesternfr00lack |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/womenofwesternfr00lack/page/58 58] |title=Women of the western frontier in fact, fiction, and film |last=Lackmann |first=Ronald W. |publisher=McFarland |year=1997 |isbn=0-7864-0400-0}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B67pTgObYO4C&pg=PA73 |page=73 |title=Tombstone |first=Jane |last=Eppinga |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7385-7933-7 |series=Postcard History}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A2r6YITTcj8C&pg=PA156 |pages=156–157 |title=Upstairs girls: prostitution in the American West |last=Rutter |first=Michael |publisher=Farcountry Press |year=2005 |isbn=1-56037-357-1}}

In 1947, Life magazine featured the home and its residents in a colorful story titled, "Old Pioneers' Home: Retired to state home, oldsters spit, cuss and fight with canes".{{cite magazine |title=Old Pioneers' Home: Retired to state home, oldsters spit, cuss and fight with canes |last=Stanush |first=Claude |pages=83–84, 87–88, 91–92 |magazine=Life |date=November 3, 1947 }} Devoted primarily to a description of the quirky characters living there, the article said that the state-sponsored rest home was the only one in the U.S., not counting one in the Territory of Alaska built to house aging Klondike Gold Rushers. Superintendent Jack Sills said that applicants were required to have lived in Arizona for 35 years, and that residents were given $7.50 each month to spend as they wished, usually on alcohol and tobacco. The Life article was described in detail in 1974 in a writeup published in The Prescott Courier in which reporter Claudette Simpson said that Life angered some locals for its crudely humorous portrayal of idiosyncratic and cantankerous residents, the humor delivered at the expense of Prescott's dignity.{{cite news |title=Life In The Pioneer Home |last=Simpson |first=Claudette |date=July 5, 1974 |work=The Prescott Courier |pages=15–19}} In 2010, Superintendent Ted Ihrman said that the Life piece had added "some historical significance to the home."{{cite news |url=http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/10/17/20101017arizona-pioneers-home-100-years.html |title=Arizona Pioneers' Home reflects on 100 years of colorful personalities and stories |last=Creno |first=Glen |date=October 17, 2010 |work=The Arizona Republic }}

File:Front view of Arizona Pioneers' Home.jpg

The expanded complex of buildings can hold 155 residents, and was at 71% capacity in October 2010. Its operating expenses are provided mainly by about $5 million each year from the state, and by some residents who pay a portion of their own care.{{cite web |url=http://www.azph.gov/ |title=Arizona Pioneers' Home |publisher=Arizona Pioneers' Home |access-date=January 17, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112151153/http://www.azph.gov/ |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Applicants must have lived in Arizona for 50 years.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YsBV4yxDnqAC&pg=PA118 |page=118 |title=Irish Arizona |first1=Janice Ryan |last1=Bryson |first2=Kathleen Shappee |last2=Wood |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7385-5647-5 |series=Images of America}} Residents who died were buried in the Home's cemetery.{{cite book |author1=Moulton, Heather L. |author2=Tatterson, Susan |title=Graveyards of the Wild West – Arizona|chapter=Arizona Pioneer' Home Cemetery – Established 1911 |date=2020 |publisher=America Through Time (Fonthill Media)|isbn=978-1634992275 |pages=76–83}} In 2011, the retirement home celebrated its 100th anniversary with tours and open-house events.

Various historic figures have lived at the home or are buried there.

• Kate Cory (1861–1958) artist and Hopi photographer[http://www.sharlot.org/archives/manuscripts/personal/Kate_Cory_Collection.pdf Kate Cory Collection: 1905–1912, Finding Aid] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822082411/https://www.sharlot.org/archives/manuscripts/personal/Kate_Cory_Collection.pdf |date=2016-08-22 }} Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott, Arizona. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
• Sharlot Hall (1870–1943) territorial historian (resided 1909–12){{cite web|url=http://www.azph.gov/history.asp |title=History of APH |publisher=Arizona Pioneers' Home |access-date=January 19, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119061323/http://www.azph.gov/history.asp |archive-date=January 19, 2012 }}{{cite book | last =McClintock | first = James H. | title = Arizona: Prehistoric – Aboriginal – Pioneer{{snd}}Modern| year = 1916 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xEQOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA360}}
• Big Nose Kate (1850–1940) saloon-keeper in Tombstone
• Effie Anderson Smith (1869–1955) Western landscape painter
• Albert Franklin Banta (1843–1924) early pioneer and founder of several Arizona newspapers
• Jeff Cooper (1920–2006) firearms expert and founder of the American Pistol Institute in Yavapai County{{Cite web|url=https://jeffcooperfoundation.org/|title=Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation – An armed society is a polite society|website=jeffcooperfoundation.org}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Arizona Pioneers' Home}}

• [https://pioneershome.az.gov Official website]
• {{Find a Grave cemetery}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1911 establishments in Arizona Territory

Category:Arizona pioneers

Category:Arizona Territory

Category:Cemeteries in Arizona

Category:Buildings and structures in Prescott, Arizona

Category:History of Arizona

Category:History of Yavapai County, Arizona

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Prescott, Arizona

Category:Pre-statehood history of Arizona

Category:Cemeteries established in the 1910s