Rosson House
Encyclopedia
The Rosson House was built in 1895 and still sits in its original foundation in downtown Phoenix
’s Heritage Square. Originally named for Dr. Roland Lee Rosson and his wife Flora Murry, this house changed hands numerous times before finally being purchased by the city and restored very accurately to its original condition. It now serves as a historic house museum.
This house is commonly agreed to be of the Stick-Eastlake
Queen Anne Style
Victorian architecture
. It was designed by prominent San Francisco architect A.P Petit. This was the last house Petit designed but he died before its completion. Near exact floor plans and blue prints of this house can be found in literature published before Petit’s design of the house, causing controversy that perhaps this house is not as unique as originally thought. The architecture displays numerous attributes contributed from different cultures, such as an Asian moon gate
, Italianate
hooded windows, and a French octagonal tower.
clearly shows the house was already standing with the words that Rosson "resides [at the] Tonto corner [of] Monroe", Tonto was the old name of 6th Street, and Monroe intersects it there. Purportedly, shortly after its completion Dr. Rosson was elected mayor of Phoenix and that his grand house was thought to have greatly influenced his victory.
The Rosson house also had such modern accommodations as “the electric light”, hot and cold running water, and indoor (upstairs) bathroom, and a telephone. The other Victorian mansions on Monroe were similarly equipped early on, as by 1892 Phoenix boasted electrical plants, running-water, a gas system and 2 competing telephone systems. The Phoenix street-car line ran down Monroe before turning north on Seventh Street, so the Rosson and other Monroe street residents had only to walk out to board it.
Whitelaw Reid
rented this house for two winters from the Rossons when his doctors informed him that the dry climate could help with his respiratory problems. Whitelaw Reid's pen and ink set was donated to the Rosson house after his death and can be found on display. It is from Whitelaw Reid’s letters and correspondence about the house that so much about its history is known. Without these letters it would have been difficult to restore the house with such accuracy. It should be added that a subsequent owner had built on a small but nice-looking wooden room adjacent to the second story of the octagonal tower, this addition was removed in the early stages of the restoration. The Rosson House had gone through phases of being a mansion
, a rented house, a boarding house
, and than a "flop-house" before it was bought by the city of Phoenix for restoration.
A number of smaller homes were built outside the city limits in the 1880's by J.J. Welty, and made out of poured concrete blocks made to look like hewn-stone. There is also the mansion built by John T. Dennis' neighbor Clark Churchill which in turn became the first building of Phoenix Union High School. Additionally almost all of the early hotels of Phoenix were made out of locally produced red bricks.
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
’s Heritage Square. Originally named for Dr. Roland Lee Rosson and his wife Flora Murry, this house changed hands numerous times before finally being purchased by the city and restored very accurately to its original condition. It now serves as a historic house museum.
Architecture
Stick-Eastlake
The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style. According to McAlester, it served as the transition between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it evolved into and superseded it by the 1890s....
Queen Anne Style
Queen Anne Style architecture (United States)
In America, the Queen Anne style of architecture, furniture and decorative arts was popular in the United States from 1880 to 1910. In American usage "Queen Anne" is loosely used of a wide range of picturesque buildings with "free Renaissance" details rather than of a specific formulaic style in...
Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
. It was designed by prominent San Francisco architect A.P Petit. This was the last house Petit designed but he died before its completion. Near exact floor plans and blue prints of this house can be found in literature published before Petit’s design of the house, causing controversy that perhaps this house is not as unique as originally thought. The architecture displays numerous attributes contributed from different cultures, such as an Asian moon gate
Moon gate
A Moon Gate is a circular opening in a garden wall that acts as a pedestrian passageway, and a traditional architectural element in Chinese gardens. Moon Gates have many different spiritual meanings for every piece of tile on the gate and on the shape of it...
, Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
hooded windows, and a French octagonal tower.
History
This beautiful small mansion was built for Dr. Roland Lee Rosson and his wife Flora Murry. Dr. Rosson had come to the very early Phoenix by at least 1880 as a youthful 28 year-old doctor and surgeon, though in a town as small as Phoenix was then there would have been very few surgeries to perform. So, by 1892 Rosson had embarked on a political career and was the county treasurer and "ex-officio tax collector". The date for the construction of the house is debatable as the Rosson House website states it was built in 1895, but the 1892 city directoryCity directory
A city directory is a listing of residents, streets, businesses, organizations or institutions, giving their location in a city. Antedating telephone directories, they have been in use for centuries....
clearly shows the house was already standing with the words that Rosson "resides [at the] Tonto corner [of] Monroe", Tonto was the old name of 6th Street, and Monroe intersects it there. Purportedly, shortly after its completion Dr. Rosson was elected mayor of Phoenix and that his grand house was thought to have greatly influenced his victory.
The Rosson house also had such modern accommodations as “the electric light”, hot and cold running water, and indoor (upstairs) bathroom, and a telephone. The other Victorian mansions on Monroe were similarly equipped early on, as by 1892 Phoenix boasted electrical plants, running-water, a gas system and 2 competing telephone systems. The Phoenix street-car line ran down Monroe before turning north on Seventh Street, so the Rosson and other Monroe street residents had only to walk out to board it.
Whitelaw Reid
Whitelaw Reid
Whitelaw Reid was a U.S. politician and newspaper editor, as well as the author of a popular history of Ohio in the Civil War.-Early life:...
rented this house for two winters from the Rossons when his doctors informed him that the dry climate could help with his respiratory problems. Whitelaw Reid's pen and ink set was donated to the Rosson house after his death and can be found on display. It is from Whitelaw Reid’s letters and correspondence about the house that so much about its history is known. Without these letters it would have been difficult to restore the house with such accuracy. It should be added that a subsequent owner had built on a small but nice-looking wooden room adjacent to the second story of the octagonal tower, this addition was removed in the early stages of the restoration. The Rosson House had gone through phases of being a mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
, a rented house, a boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
, and than a "flop-house" before it was bought by the city of Phoenix for restoration.
Other brick landmarks
The Rosson House is an early example, but not first, of a house in Phoenix constructed of fired brick and wood instead of adobe bricks. At least one brick-making factory was established locally before. Some fine examples of early brick/block houses that predated the Rosson House include the mansion built in 1887 for John T. Dennis at 242 E. Monroe and its neighbor mansion at 230 E. Monroe built for M. Jacobs. The John T. Dennis mansion was beautiful, as the Rosson House is, however when the pioneer Mr. Dennis decided to move elsewhere he opted to rent his mansion out repeatedly, and with his death the eventual consequences were of it being torn down in the 1950's. Three blocks down Monroe the Rosson house still stands. Additionally there was the large house built for Columbus Gray in 1890, the J.Y.T. Smith home at 5th St. and Adams reportedly dates from 1892.A number of smaller homes were built outside the city limits in the 1880's by J.J. Welty, and made out of poured concrete blocks made to look like hewn-stone. There is also the mansion built by John T. Dennis' neighbor Clark Churchill which in turn became the first building of Phoenix Union High School. Additionally almost all of the early hotels of Phoenix were made out of locally produced red bricks.