Sedona the Beautiful photo by Melissa Morrison c2010

The Sedona Historic Preservation Commission has announced its list of Sedona’s Most Endangered Places.  These are the properties of historical significance that are judged most in danger of being erased from Sedona’s beautiful landscape, and with that loss would come the destruction of a tangible piece of Sedona’s history.  This is the story these properties tell:

In the 1880’s, Sedona’s earliest settlers discovered they could deliver water to their farms using irrigation ditches they built from Oak Creek.  The ditches were obviously built to last.  They continued to function into the 20th century providing water to the orchard industry.  The Owenby, Hart, and Jordan ditches are still operational today. 

The water must have been flowing well in the ditches by the 1920’s.  Jess and Lizzie Purtymun were the fourth permanent family to arrive in Oak Creek and stay.  Their home, which they built in 1924, stands today on Oak Creek as a monument to a period and type of construction executed by a local master, and as a remembrance of significant events.  Jess Purtymun became known for his hand in the construction of many of Sedona’s buildings and roads.

Meanwhile, the local orchards continued to thrive, and around 1939, George Jordan built a barn, known as the George Jordan Packing Shed, for commercial fruit processing.  After nineteen years as a home for the fruit industry, the barn metamorphosed, with the help of artists and entrepreneurs, into an art center called Canyon Kiva.  By 1961, the barn had a new name, the Sedona Art Center, though it is affectionately referred to today as the Art Barn.

Homes began to take on more contemporary characteristics with the design genius of such notable architects as Howard Madole, who was responsible for creating a home for Sedona authors Elizabeth and Douglas Rigby in 1948.  The Madole-Rigby House may be the oldest remaining adobe house in Sedona.  It sits today in the center of a 10-acre vacant parcel in West Sedona.

With agriculture well established, Sedona’s residents turned their attention toward developing the arts and education.  Another award-winning architect, Benny Gonzales, stepped forward to design the original Sedona Library, located on Jordan Road, in 1964.  Gonzales is well known for many projects in Scottsdale and Phoenix, including the Heard Museum.  The impressive library building no longer houses books, but it remains intact on choice commercial property in uptown Sedona.

What is to be done to keep Sedona’s story, as told by these endangered places, alive?

The Historic Preservation Commission works to find ways to restore and repair aging structures, to find new uses for building interiors, to incorporate historic structures into newly developed neighborhoods, and to acquire landmark designations when appropriate.  Consequently, these structures may continue to embody the history of Sedona.

This article was written by Historic Preservation Commission member Noreen Wienges and submitted to sedonaeye.com.