1897 Smurthwaite House

This 1897 Shingle Style house did something few buildings do: it moved. One of fewer than a hundred nineteenth-century buildings still standing in Phoenix, the Smurthwaite House made a slow, landmark journey of twenty-six city blocks to reach its present spot at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park, where the city's earliest cemeteries lie. Donated by three Arizona museums and restored, it now serves as a visitor center and a research base for the state's historic graveyards, a survivor pressed into service explaining other survivors.

What the plaque says

The 1897 Smurthwaite House is an excellent example of Shingle Style Architecture. It is one of fewer than one hundred 19th century buildings of this age left in Phoenix. It was donated to the City of Phoenix by the Phoenix Art Museum, the Heard Museum, and the Museum of Northern Arizona for the purpose of being enjoyed by the public. This home made a landmark journey down 26 city blocks to its current location. It has been restored and serves as a visitor's center for Pioneer and Military Memorial Park and a research source for state historic cemeteries.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Phoenix — 0.9 mi
  The fifth-largest US city, built on the canals of a thousand-year-old one
• Heard Museum — 2.0 mi
  The Native Southwest, told in the first person
• Taliesin West — 18 mi
  Frank Lloyd Wright's desert masterwork, grown from the ground it stands on

More markers nearby

• Jacob Waltz — steps away
• The Evans House — steps away
• Arizona Copper Company's Locomotive #2 — steps away
• Boras Headframe — steps away