By Norm Tessman

(Seventy-five years ago this coming June 11 the first guest signed the Governor's Mansion register and the Sharlot Hall Museum began. We have been running a series of articles that explores the people and events that have shaped the museum's long journey.  Today, we will cover the time period from 1973-1980.)

Prologue: Come with us now for an imaginary visit to the Sharlot Hall Museum of 1972. Using today's buildings as landmarks, we see that where the Bashford House now stands is Kindt Brothers Corner Gasoline Station. Past it westward on Gurley Street are two ugly block buildings housing a liquor store and a loan office. A cross street, "Capitol Drive" bisects the block north-south past the front entrance of the Governor's Mansion. The Museum's western boundary ends just beyond the schoolhouse and the blacksmith shop/grounds area. Large vehicles are housed in the Old Shop building; other collections are stored, uncataloged and with little security, in the basement and vault of the Sharlot Hall Building and in outbuildings. "Library/Archives" and the "gift shop" share the present main gallery of the Sharlot Hall Building. Five full-time and several part-time employees do their best to maintain the buildings, grounds, and collections on a state appropriation of $72,300. Annual museum memberships cost $1 - lifetime membership is $10. Arizona Historical Society, centered in Tucson, has made repeated legislative efforts to take over Sharlot Hall Museum as a satellite, and is expected to try again. Perhaps most telling, field trips from University of Arizona Museum Studies classes come here each semester to illustrate "museum problems." 

But solutions to many of these "problems" were on the horizon. The first step occurred in October 1972, when a board and batten bungalow which had housed Arizona's fifth territorial governor was moved to the Museum. An eye-sore until it received funding by a separate state appropriation ($29,100), the "John C. Fremont" house was restored and furnished. It would be dedicated on January 19, 1974, as Prescott's own Senator Boyd Tenney cut the ribbon to open the Museum's new period house. 

Prescott native Dora Heap resigned in midsummer, 1973, after many years as the Museum's director. The board hired Kenneth Kimsey who was finishing up a doctorate in history from Arizona State University. Soon after his arrival, the new director advocated a cataloging system for artifacts, extension of the Museum's hours, and publication of a newsletter. Staff were encouraged to attend professional workshops and museum conferences. 

An all-metal 1878 windmill, the "Mast Foos Iron Turbine" was acquired from the Matli Ranch north of Prescott, and assembled during the next three years over the Museum's well. In 1980, the mill was successfully nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. About the same time, the Prescott Antique Car Club restored Sharlot M. Hall's personal 1927 Star touring car, adding such conveniences as an electric starter. 

A volunteer auxiliary was formed with twenty members - today it has grown to 430, of which half work weekly - the rest volunteer for festivals. In October, a one-day Folk Art Fair celebrated traditional crafts - the staff and board were amazed by the turnout. Within three years the festival, extended to two days, would draw some 3,000 visitors. Also in 1973, "the Sharlot Hall Historical Society Newsletter" began publication - the first issue introduced new director Kimsey, highlighted the 1870s Arizona journal of army wife Martha Summerhayes, and discussed the Fremont House restoration and the need to save the "tin" ceiling of the Studio Theatre. It also announced a contest to improve the publication's name - "The Sharlot Hall Gazette" being the winner. 

That November, Delbert Pierce offered to donate the historic William Coles Bashford house at 401 East Gurley Street, which was threatened with demolition to make way for a Jack in the Box restaurant. Many of Prescott's Victorian homes had met similar fates. Moving the Bashford house to the Museum's grounds was to become a celebrated cause in Prescott, and to launch a vigorous historic preservation movement. 

Throughout the spring of 1973, funds alternatively poured and trickled in for the Bashford House move. Money-raising dances, rummage sales, and art shows were dedicated to its preservation. The Prescott Antique Car Club halted Gurley Street traffic to fill a "clothesline" with donated dollar bills. School children collected and sold tin cans. Finally, on April 19, with $19,000 in funds and considerable donated materials, the house was moved six blocks to the Museum grounds. Watchers along the route cheered "Go Bashford, Go!" as the house rolled slowly west on Gurley Street. After two-years of extensive restoration, it would be dedicated and opened during Folk Arts Fair in May 1976. 

The Museum's state appropriation for the fiscal year 1975 included $35,000 for an architectural study of a new multipurpose building - it also authorized a second maintenance worker to join the five full-time and five part-time employees - nearly 40,000 visitors passed through the Museum and 500 did research in its archives. An "Indian exhibits" addition to the Sharlot Hall Building was funded by the wills of local dentist, Dr. Clark Hartzell and his wife. Also that year, the Arizona Legislature approved $75,000 for purchase of the badly needed property immediately west of the Museum. 

New key professional jobs were funded and advertised in 1976. Angeline Henri was hired as Curator of Education, to coordinate the Museum's educational programs and manage its volunteer auxiliary. Two more key jobs, Archivist and Maintenance Supervisor, were filled by Sue Abbey Chamberlain and Robert W. Fields. 

In April 1977, the Federal Public Works Employment Act funded 1.4 million dollars for construction of a 20,000-square-foot solar-heated "Museum Center" building. It would house offices, collections storage, an archives and library, and a "multipurpose" gallery space that doubled as a small auditorium. Sited parallel to Beach Street, the new two-story building required moving the Territorial Rose Garden to its present location, and the closing and removal of Capitol Drive. 

The Museum's growing object collection sparked the need for a curator and a registrar - After extensive searches, Norm Tessman (1978) and Mick Woodcock (1979) were hired for these jobs. They instituted a registration system that was soon based upon the upcoming IBM computer (one of these 1981-era "true blue" PC XTs was recently added to the historical collections). By this time, the Bashford house had become popular for meetings by community groups and for activities such as quilting. 

In January 1979, the Museum's entire collection of books, newspapers, and documents was stored in the empty Governors Mansion. Covered with impermeable blue tarps, the building and collections were fumigated with "Vikane," a highly penetrating pesticide which leaves no residue. Afterwards, the material was vacuumed and moved into the archives/library area on the east end of the new Museum Center. On April 23, the building was dedicated with an official ribbon cutting and staff moved into offices in the building. 

A second annual multi-day celebration, the Folk Music Festival was launched in October 1980, drawing musicians and visitors from throughout Arizona. Perhaps most important that year, the Museum's mission area was refined to include the Central Highlands (middle third north-to-south) of Arizona, and the staff began actively advertising for artifacts and documents from that area. 

Having begun work at Sharlot Hall Museum early in 1978, I never encountered the University Museum studies classes which had field tripped here to see "museum problems." Certainly by 1980, such bad examples were rare and greatly outweighed by innovation, positive growth, and a new sense of professional pride. All in all, it was Dr. Ken Kimsey's era, the fruits of his hard work and insight. And the Museum's quest for quality was to continue and accelerate in the years ahead. 

(Norm Tessman is Senior Curator of Collections) 



Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (Bashford house 1974). Reuse only by permission.
On April 19, 1974 the Bashford House lumbered down Gurley Street from Pleasant (where Jack-In-The-Box is today) to McCormick (the Sharlot Hall Museum). Probably like the children shown here at Washington School, watchers along the route cheered "Go Bashford, Go!" as the house rolled by.