By Randi Wise

As a newcomer to Prescott, I was curious about that big brick building on the top of the hill just a short distance southwest of the plaza. I thought at first it might be a hospital. It wasn’t long before I learned that it was a state run home for the elderly, commissioned by an act of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Arizona on March 10, 1909.

The Arizona Pioneers’ Home was ready for occupancy on February 1, 1911. In those first years only miners were admitted, with a capacity for 40 men. It was soon realized that there were many hard working Arizonans who also deserved a soft place to land in their declining years, so a wing was built in 1916 to house 20 women.

Even if you had money enough to live on your own, you could still live at the Pioneer Home. In fact, you received an allowance of $7.50 a week whether you had money of your own or not. "Walking-around-money" my father would have called that.

The Pioneer Home was there for the miners, homesteaders, ranchers, business owners, any citizens that helped build Arizona. With so many aging and independent Arizona citizens looking for such a place, The Pioneer Home had overcrowding problems from the git-go. In fact, even to this day there is a waiting list.

Now don’t get me wrong. Not just anyone calling himself an Arizona citizen may be admitted. There have always been certain criteria to meet: initially, you had to be at least 60 years of age, been active in the development of Arizona, have lived in Arizona at least 25 years (later increased to 35 years and today that has changed to 50 years). You also had to walk through the door on your own power and be able to take care of yourself.

On and off over the years, rumors would surface about the place. One good example is a Life Magazine article in the November 3, 1947 issue, which accused The Pioneer Home of all sorts of misdeeds. The author of the article wrote: "The Arizona Pioneers are a crusty, cantankerous lot whose only common denominator is that they do not like society generally and each other specifically….the home is about as peaceful as an old frontier saloon. Every week there are at least two or three old fashioned brawls, fought sometimes with bare knuckles, but more often with canes….at least a fourth of the guests have served time in jail or in the penitentiary….they spend most of the allowance for whiskey along the row". To read the entire Life Magazine article, go to http://www.azph.gov/PDF/LIFE_Nov_3_1947.pdf

For several years those rumors circulated and caused the Board of Governors much grief. Then, in the winter of 1952, Superintendent James Griswold invited Roscoe G. Willson, a reporter with the Arizona Republic, to come for a visit. Turns out that the reporter knew several of the residents! He had a wonderful visit and refuted everything the Life article reported. He called it sensationalism. He found that "through misfortune or choice, they are passing their declining years in the company of people of their own age. Many of them have been life-long friends. The attitude of many is that they prefer living in the home rather than become a burden on friends or relatives".

As much as things change, they also remain the same. If you were to ask any of the approximate 150 residents why they live there today, the answer would be much the same as it was in 1952.

To see just how things were at The Pioneer Home in 1963, come to the Blue Rose Theater production of "The Ladies of the Garden" at the Sharlot Hall Museum, with. performances June 12 and 19 at 7:30 p.m.; June 13 and 20 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Call the museum at 445-3122 for tickets and information.

(Randi Wise is a descendant of the Spences; she is the great-granddaughter of Belle Spence Crume.)

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bub8222pd). Reuse only bypermission.

The Arizona Pioneer Home circa 1912. First all-male occupants were admitted in February of 1911.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bub8151pe). Reuse only bypermission.

After construction of the resident wings: one on the right for women and left for men. The center was lobby and medical care facility. Photo 1918.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bure4185pc). Reuse only bypermission.

Occasion unknown, circa 1930s.