A walk through time in Tempe

Garin Groff , Tribune

No doubt countless tourists have wandered past one of Tempe’s oldest buildings without knowing a U.S. president stayed there once, as did “Buffalo Bill” Cody.

The building is best known today for the Shoe Mill store or Cafe Boa, and at a glance, it doesn’t seem historic. But the Hotel Casa Loma building was once the top tourist spot in town and even hosted President William McKinley in 1901.

History buffs hope more locals and visitors will learn more about the city’s rich but often hidden past with a historic walking tour proposed to start later this year.

The idea comes from an unlikely source: a developer building high-rise condos downtown.

Avenue Communities wants to call attention to the area’s historic sites with plaques or signs that give a bit of history — and a phone number so passers-by can use their cell phones to hear a narrator tell more.

The firm is developing the tour now and plans to maintain it. It won’t charge the city or property owners anything.

The concept is a surprise to Bob Gasser, chairman of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. Many developers have looked at historic properties and simply wanted to bulldoze them. Or they’ll do just the minimum required by law without recognizing that history can be a big tourist draw.

“To see someone like Avenue (Communities), who’s willing to do a lot more — it’s really unexpected,” he said.

The firm came up with the idea after flooding neighborhoods around Tempe with a DVD and questionnaire called “Speak Out Tempe.” The campaign came as the company was breaking ground on Centerpoint Condominiums, which will include four condo towers, three of them 30 stories high. A 22-story tower on the site has nearly topped out.

The survey found Tempeans wanted to celebrate the area’s history, said Rick Labonte, Avenue Communities’ project manager.

The firm identified nearly 100 historic sites in the area. About 30 are in the heart of downtown and would be on the tour. The historic walk would work a bit like checking out headphones for a self-guided tour at a museum — except you could use a cell phone and only check out what you’re most interested in.

The company is still working on technical details and plans to get the tour in place this fall.

Gasser said he isn’t aware of any historic district with a feature like this.

Most tourists and locals know the downtown has some history, Gasser said, but would be surprised at the amount. Information on about everything that would be on the tour is available online through the city’s museum site, but Gasser figures few have stumbled across the information.

“It’s too daunting, and you almost have to know where to go,” Gasser said. “This sounds like it would be very, very easy.”

The tour would boost awareness of historic moments such as McKinley’s visit, Gasser said, and historic beginnings, such as how the Scottsdale-based Harkins Theatres chain was started in Tempe by Red Harkins, who eventually built the College Theatre on Mill Avenue.

The theatre is now known as the Valley Art Theatre, and the chain is run by Red’s son, Dan Harkins.

No Tempe tour would be complete without information about Monti’s La Casa Vieja, the oldest continually occupied structure in the Valley. Tempe founder Charles Trumbull Hayden built it in 1871, and later built the Hayden Flour Mill across the street.

The mill was once Tempe’s center of commerce but has sat vacant for years. Gasser expects it will again be a center of the city under current plans to turn it into shops, restaurants and offices — developed by Avenue Communities.

The firm is working to buy the mill from the city and make the building its headquarters.

Gasser has led groups on walking tours over the years and likes the fact that the firm’s plan makes the history available to anybody at any time.

“The number of people this will reach takes a whole new jump,” Gasser said.