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March 19, 1999/2 Nisan 5759, Vol. 51, No. 25
Archaeologists unearth historic bricks, but not Ganz home ruins
MICHELLE ACKERMAN
Staff Writer
Oops.
Local archaeologists thought they were probably excavating the historic home of Emil Ganz, one of Phoenix's earliest influential businessmen and its only Jewish mayor, at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Monroe Street. But Ganz's granddaughter, Sylvia Ganz Houle of Phoenix, has always known that her grandfather actually lived on the northwest corner, where the First Presbyterian Church is now located.
The mix-up apparently began years ago, when the Arizona Jewish Historical Society was collecting information about Ganz. At that time, Houle told historians that she had no specific memories of the house, which was technically true since the house was torn down long before she was born. But that didn't mean that she didn't know where it was located.
"I know the house was there because, from the time I was a little girl, (the site) was pointed out to me when we'd drive by there," explained Houle.
In the summer of 1998, when the city was getting ready to tear up various parking lots located between Third and Fourth Avenues and Adams and Monroe Streets, in order to replace them with a parking garage, Phoenix City Archaeologist Todd Bostwick stepped in and pushed for the area to first be excavated.
As city archaeologist, Bostwick has the authority to "serve as an advocate for archaeology," he explained, even when it is not required under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. That act states that before federal buildings, which use federal funding, are built, sites must be excavated for historical and research purposes.
So far, approximately one-third of downtown Phoenix has been excavated.
Bostwick explained that one of the reasons he pushed for this dig was that old maps showed that the area was within the first part of Phoenix to be developed as a town site.
The digging began in late November 1998. Working with a $48,000 budget allocated by the city of Phoenix, the team of five archaeologists, a historian and two lab people set to work.
Having failed to ask Houle if she knew the location of her grandfather's home, archaeologists, relying on maps and other documents, believed they were likely unearthing remains of the Ganz house. While they didn't unearth the Ganz house, at another nearby location, they did find what they were looking for - remnants of Nathan and Alice Morford's home. Nathan Morford was the owner and editor of the first Phoenix newspaper, the Phoenix Herald.
Besides a basement, a latrine and a water well, they found old Coca-Cola bottles, prescription bottles, plates, cups, food jars, door handles, flower pots, animal bones (from steak and chicken) and lots of window glass. Now that the dig is over, the artifacts will be cleaned and numbered and analyzed. The resulting information will be plotted on graphs in an attempt to find out how the well and the latrine were used. When the research is completed in June, the artifacts will be sent to the Pueblo Grande Museum in Phoenix.
"To me, there's a real magic in knowing who was here at this spot and what they were doing," commented Melissa Keane, the historian on the project. "In the daily pace of doing business in Phoenix and building our future and constructing new buildings, we (need to) take a minute to look back to our past."
Though the location turned out not to be that of Ganz's house, the dig resurrected interest among local historians in both Ganz and the early history of Phoenix.
Ganz, who was born in Germany in 1838, came to the United States in 1858. He moved about the country until 1874, when he settled in Prescott briefly, and finally, in Phoenix. He worked as proprietor of the well-known hotel Bank Exchange, until the building was destroyed by fire in 1885. That same year, Ganz was elected to the first of his three terms as mayor. He was also a member of the city council.
In 1895, Ganz was elected president of the National Bank of Arizona, which later became First National Bank and is now owned by Pacific Century Bank. Ganz worked at the bank until at least 1913. He died in 1922.
He also was the grandfather of Joan Ganz Cooney, who developed the PBS program "Sesame Street" at the Children's Television Network.
"Sometimes people think that Phoenix doesn't have much of a history, but indeed we do," said Bostwick. "It's just buried in the ground."
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