Survey Number: HPS-909
Year Built: 1959
Architectural Style: Wright and Ranch


BACKGROUND + STATUS:
The landmark home of retired United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the new Center for Civic Discourse at the Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability was relocated to Tempe Papago Park in 2009 through the efforts of a grassroots group of civic-minded citizens who enthusiastically endorsed Justice O'Connor's wish to re-purpose the house as the "Camp David" of the Southwest.

The property located at 1230 North College Avenue in Tempe Papago Park has been nominated for landmark designation and listing in the Tempe Historic Property Register. The property is considered eligible for this action by the Historic Preservation Office.

The landmark Sandra Day O’Connor House is significant primarily as the surviving property most importantly associated with a life of distinguished public service spent building consensus with a style rich in Western pragmatism that has incrementally shaped the law, unified a divided Court, and helped a polarized nation coalesce. Today it is difficult to imagine a better personification of the spirit of Arizona than the so-called “Daughter of Arizona”, United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

LOCATION
The landmark Sandra Day O’Connor House was relocated from its original 1959 site on Denton Lane in Paradise Valley to an area in Tempe Papago Park dedicated to the development of the Center for Civic Discourse. Although the Tempe Historic Preservation Plan recognizes preservation "in place" as the preferred strategy for the long-term management of historic properties, when this is not possible, relocation is a recommended alternative to preserve the historic characteristics of the property.[i]

The opportunity to relocate both the home and the spirit of Sandra Day O’Connor to a spectacular setting in Tempe Papago Park resulted from a broad-based community effort. This stunning adobe house has witnessed more than Justice O’Connor’s remarkable life journey; for 25 years the home also saw much of the state’s history being made. People got to know one another in this house as they had fun and reached compromises across party lines. In the process, friendships were created that helped make Arizona a better place to live. It is a gift to Tempe and to the community at large to let the house serve, once again, as a gathering place where people find the level of compromise and consensus needed to move society forward. Justice O'Connor remains committed to promoting civil discussions which translate into effective action plans to improve our community. To this end she offers us her vision for repurposing the O’Connor House as a place – “where civil talk leads to civic action.” The adaptive reuse of this property also helps make historic designation after relocation possible.[ii]

The site selected for the relocation overlooks Tempe and the Salt River to the south. The home was reconstructed so that it is situated with the same directional orientation as it was when first constructed. We have often heard Mayor Hallman speak about how this building has come home because the abode was originally made from sand and clay soils from the bed of the Salt River in Tempe. According to Justice O’Connor, members of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community blessed the house site in Tempe Papago Park prior to the reconstruction.[iii]

The National Park Service advises that certain properties, including moved properties, are usually not considered for listing in the National Register. NPS notes however that these properties can be eligible if they meet certain requirements, called ‘Criteria Considerations,’ in addition to meeting standard eligibility requirements. NPS provides guidelines for determining which properties must meet these special requirements and for applying Criteria Considerations.[iv]

The landmark Sandra Day O’Connor House and Center for Civic Discourse is a property removed from its original location that remains eligible for historic designation under NPS Criteria Consideration B (moved properties). The property is significant primarily as the singular surviving property most importantly associated with an historic person – retired United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.[v]

Throughout the 1970s, when Justice O'Connor served in the Arizona legislature and as Senate majority leader, her home provided a forum for many amicable resolutions to heated political discussions. "I remember sessions in the living room area," Justice O'Connor recalled, "talking about provisions for Arizona that would keep us out of debt but [encourage] progress." Now, as the ‘Center for Civic Discourse,’ the house will once again serve as a forum for exploring problems in such areas as healthcare, women's justice, civic education, and the preservation of the Western landscape and its fragile cultural and natural resources.[vi]

CONDITION
Beginning late in 2007, the landmark Sandra Day O’Connor House was carefully moved, with each adobe block numbered, stacked on pallets, and covered with tarps. Roof sections and structural framing were trucked in large assemblies and reinstalled using heavy equipment. The total relocation process used more than $2 million in private funding. This community-based activity preserved the historic building to provide meeting space and pay tribute to Justice O’Connor and her family. In 2009, the landmark Sandra Day O’Connor House and Center for Civic Discourse was reconstructed in the same splendor in which it formerly existed within the boundaries of the Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability at Tempe Papago Park. With assistance from the private nonprofit Rio Salado Foundation, this property provides a first-class meeting facility in one of the most unique desert settings in the Valley metro area.

AGE
Although the process for local designation closely follows National Register protocol, we must make a distinction at this juncture for the landmark definition. The Landmark designation provided by the Tempe Historic Preservation Ordinance relates specifically to the age of a property. By Tempe Ordinance; Landmark means a designation, in the form of overlay zoning, applied to an individual property, as a result of formal adoption by the city council, which has achieved significance within the past fifty (50) years and which expresses a distinctive character worthy of preservation and which otherwise fulfills or exceeds the criteria for designation as an historic property.[vii]

Although Justice O’Connor lived in this home with her husband and three children from 1959-1981, the 2009 relocation of the building to Tempe Papago Park effectively resets the clock. Today the landmark Sandra Day O’Connor House and Center for Civic Discourse is proposed for designation under the landmark provision of the Tempe Historic Preservation Ordinance as a property which has achieved significance within the past fifty (50) years.[viii]

SIGNIFICANCE
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is one of Arizona’s most recognizable and influential public figures. Appointed in 1969 to the Arizona Senate and re-elected twice afterward, O'Connor became majority leader in 1972, the first woman to hold that title in the country. Precedent was set again in 1981, when she became the first woman justice to serve on the United States Supreme Court. At the time of her Federal appointment she had held office in all three branches of Arizona government, another important precedent as she remains the only person to have done so. Having served for twenty-four years as the Supreme Court’s first female justice, Sandra Day O’Connor enjoys widespread recognition. Perhaps her most prestigious award, however, came on August 12, 2009, when she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. Today it is difficult to imagine a better personification of the spirit of Arizona and the Desert Southwest than the “Daughter of Arizona”, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.[ix]

A moved property significant under Criteria A or B must be the surviving property most importantly associated with a particular historic event or an important aspect of an historic person's life. The phrase "most importantly associated" means that it must be the single surviving property that is most closely associated with the event or with the part of the person's life for which he or she is historically significant. In the early 1970s and through 1981, when Justice O'Connor served in the Arizona legislature and as Senate majority leader, her home provided a forum for many heated discussions and amicable resolutions. The house provided the setting for significant bipartisan growth and development during the Arizona’s formative years. Today, as the Center for Civic Discourse, the house will once again serve as a forum to explore problems in such areas as healthcare, women's justice, civic education, and the preservation of the Western landscape and its fragile resources.[x]

INTEGRITY
Integrity is the ability of a property to convey its significance. To be designated historic a property must not only have historic significance; it must also maintain sufficient integrity to communicate that significance to persons unfamiliar with the property or with the community in general. A candidate property is evaluated according to seven aspects of integrity which must be present in different combinations depending on the property type and the criteria from which historic significance is derived. The seven aspects of integrity are; Location, Design, Setting, Materials, Workmanship, Feeling, and Association. In practice, all aspects of integrity are not normally present in an historic property therefore determining which must exist for a particular nomination requires knowing why, where, and when the property is significant.[xi]

For the case at hand, the landmark Sandra Day O’Connor House and Center for Civic Discourse is significant as a building property type under NPS Criteria B, based on its association with the life of person significant in the history of the community; it is also representative of some great ideal of the community, bipartisan consensus building for social progress. Under this eligibility scenario, the property obtains significance at the regional (Arizona) level if it can be found to maintain four of the seven aspects of integrity. Specifically, our subject property must maintain integrity of Setting, Materials, Feeling, and Association in order to convey its significance.[xii]

Accordingly, our discussion will be limited to discovery of those aspects of integrity only, and, out of respect for commissioners’ time, will not consider the aspects of Location, Design, and Workmanship, although two of these other aspects also adequately exist. As seen in the following discussion, the property exceeds minimum requirements and retains more than adequate integrity to qualify for designation and listing.[xiii]

Setting – Moved properties considered for eligibility under Criterion B must continue to have an orientation, setting, and general environment that are comparable to those of the historic location and that are compatible with the property's significance. In the context of integrity, NPS defines Setting as the physical environment of a historic property. Whereas location refers to the specific place where a property was built or an event occurred, setting refers to the character of the place in which the property played its historical role. It involves how, not just where, the property is situated and its relationship to surrounding features and open space.[xiv]

Now located at the Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability, the house shares a "green" theme with its neighbors: the Xeriscape Garden of the Tempe Women's Club; Evelyn Hallman Park; and the Eisendrath Center for Water Conservation. The house continues to enjoy a setting of undisturbed Sonoran Desert habitat much as it did in its original location. Moved from a residential neighborhood of one-acre lots to an area of just lightly less than one acre, local architect D. K. Taylor's green philosophy has been preserved in the directional alignment, which has been precisely retained. As the west wall takes the brunt of the sun, floor-to-ceiling windows are located on the east and large overhangs shade exterior walls. The natural environment remains integral as an adjacent riparian area called the Green Line Overlook; it is home to cottonwoods, African sumacs, California fan palms as well as varied wildlife. The house blends into the trees, and is appropriate to the environment: not a showcase, but an organic part of the landscape.[xv]

The landmark Sandra Day O’Connor House and Center for Civic Discourse is now fully reconstructed in all of the splendor in which it originally existed. Now located at the Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability, the house again enjoys a “carefully crafted and unobtrusive setting that reflects the nature of its surroundings.” Along with neighboring structures in the campus, the O’Connor house illustrates a “green” theme, emphasizing the historic structures’ traditional passive approach to desert climate control and sustainability in the modern era. As Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman has noted while reflecting on the beauty of the desert house and the work politicians of his generation have ahead: "It looks like it belongs here, it will stand as an icon not just for the woman who made it famous but for the progress we need to make for this state to survive." [xvi] [xvii]

Materials – In the context of integrity, NPS defines Materials as the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period of time in a particular pattern or configuration to form an historic property. The choice and combination of materials reveal the preferences of those who created the property and indicate the availability of particular types of materials and technologies. Indigenous materials are often the focus of regional building traditions and thereby help define an area's sense of time and place. A property must retain key exterior materials dating from the period of its historic significance. If the property has been rehabilitated, the historic materials and significant features must have been preserved.[xviii]

Integrity of materials determines whether or not an authentic historic resource still exists. The family built their Arizona home in 1959 in Paradise Valley. The adobe bricks were made of mud from the Salt River in Tempe. The O'Connor House continues to epitomize this environmentally respectful Southwestern tradition, with its eco-friendly adobe blocks made from the soil of the nearby Salt River. Molded and baked in the sun, the mud bricks harden into a durable building material excellent for insulation, especially with additional soil applied as mortar between the bricks.

During the 1957 construction, Sandra and John helped gather soil and form the adobe bricks. The O’Connor’s played an important role in the actual construction of the house as well, helping to place the adobe bricks and fill the gaps with adobe mortar. Once the walls were complete, the couple coated them with skim milk as a protective measure. “John and I hand-scraped every one of those indentations in the adobe ourselves,” O’Connor recalls. With their hands-on involvement, this home came to reflect not only a love of desert materials and landscapes but also Justice O’Connor’s unique spirit and perspective on law, politics and society. The home afforded a comfortable relaxing setting where people and ideas came together to make Arizona a better place. “When the house is moved, I will help to paint the walls once again with skim milk, just like John and I did years ago.”[xix]

In designing the narrow, elongated house, local architect D. K. Taylor incorporated the influences of Frank Lloyd Wright and Cliff May. As early as 1929, artists and architects began to flock to the southwest. One of the most influential was Frank Lloyd Wright who purchased land in Scottsdale in 1937 for what would become Taliesen West. The presence of Wright and later the Taliesen West School of Architecture created a strong modern influence in Arizona. About the same time, California architect Cliff May was beginning to experiment with what would ultimately develop into his lasting legacy – the suburban Post-war "dream home" the California Ranch House. In a site-specific synthesis of these styles, Taylor included large roof overhangs to protect the adobe bricks from the unforgiving Arizona sun. He also used large floor-to-ceiling windows, which created the illusion that the outside existed inside. Taylor used a minimal palette of materials that gives the home both a modern and a Southwestern sensibility. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the free-standing adobe fireplace. Its location, in the middle of an open-plan living room, is very modern, but the adobe brick gives it the look of a traditional hearth. Throughout the house, the adobe brick is exposed, and along with the natural wood structure and red concrete floors, gives the home a rugged feel. In the end, Taylor elegantly achieved what the clients asked for which was to recreate the memories of Sandra’s childhood adobe home on a ranch in Duncan, Arizona.[xx]

Feeling – In the context of integrity, NPS defines Feeling as a property's expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time. It results from the presence of physical features that, taken together, convey the property's historic character. For example, a rural historic district retaining original design, materials, workmanship, and setting will relate the feeling of agricultural life in the 19th century. A grouping of prehistoric petroglyphs, unmarred by graffiti and intrusions and located on its original isolated bluff, can evoke a sense of tribal spiritual life. [xxi]

In May 2008, with Mayor Hallman's encouragement, Tempe City Council voted unanimously to relocate the O'Connor house to land adjacent to the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Papago Park. Fifty years before the move, when the time came to build a home in the Phoenix area, the young couple picked a place where Praying Monk and Camelback Mountain were visible, and where the Sonoran Desert and the quiet were all encompassing. While the original site took advantage of the picturesque Praying Monk formation on Camelback Mountain, the new location opens up to the majestic Four Peaks in the McDowell Mountains in an expansive panorama similar to the previous site. From the unique beauty of its red rock buttes to the refreshing waters of its urban lake, Rio Salado and the Tempe Papago Park region offers a rich array of cultural, historic, natural and recreational resources. Here the natural environment remains integral to the site of the Center for Civic Discourse. Overflow from the nearby North Tempe Water Treatment Plant feeds an adjacent riparian area called the Green Line Overlook, is home a diversity of desert plants and wildlife. Here in its new location man and nature coexist in harmony and imbue the setting with a feeling of nurturing and wellbeing just as it was fifty years ago down on Denton Lane.[xxii]

Association – In the context of integrity, NPS defines Association as the direct link between an important historic event or person and an historic property. A property retains integrity of association if it is the place where the event or activity occurred and if it is sufficiently intact to convey that relationship. Like feeling, association requires the presence of physical features that convey a property's historic character. Because feeling and association depend on individual perceptions, their retention alone is never sufficient to support eligibility of a property for the National Register.[xxiii]

The O’Connor family's home became part of Arizona's history. As it happened, the house was also the site for numerous moments at the kitchen table, on the patio, and across the cooking area, where international guests chatted, legislators hammered out differences and where an Arizona lawyer was vetted for her selection as the nation’s first woman Supreme Court Justice. Not only did the adobe walls embrace history, they often broke down barriers across party lines.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recalls these events with pleasure; "The years I was in the Senate we would host gatherings at the house for the senators," she said, recalling the times when disputed Senate bills were drafted in the home's cozy Southwestern ambiance. "I would fix chalupas and Mexican food and all the trimmings. I remember sessions in the living room area with various leaders in the community talking about provisions for Arizona that would keep it out of debt but allow progress to be made. The state department would often send young leaders from around the world to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, and John and I would have them over for dinner. We'd talk about each other's countries and how the world would be a better place if we knew more about each other. We would have senators from both sides of the aisle," she said. "When you enjoy each other's company that way you are less apt to be terribly partisan and difficult and when you're back at work - it makes a huge difference."[xxiv]

The home’s floor plan performed exactly as John and Sandra hoped it would, facilitating and inviting discussion while food was prepared. Justice O’Connor was an avid cook and baker. Amidst the open plan she was part of everything even while in the kitchen. In addition, significant events shaped people who visited, as well as Arizona legislation. Leo Corbet, former President of the Arizona State Senate, says: “Through the years that I served with Sandra, I used to marvel at her ability to go from Senate Majority Leader to gracious hostess with such ease. She would have the full Senate over for dinner within hours of debating legislation and never miss a beat. We wrote the Grand Jury bill on her kitchen table while she was baking cookies for one of her son’s school events. She was always able to master both roles and do justice to both.” To this day, Justice O’Connor believes that it is critical for politicians to make friends on both sides of the aisle and she remains concerned about the divisiveness of partisanship at any level of government.[xxv]

Arguably the most historic events occurred in the house in 1981, when President Ronald Reagan fulfilled his promise to appoint the first woman justice to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor was visited at home by Washington officials there to administer the high-level job interview. Shortly thereafter and once again at home, the President called to tell her he planned to announce her appointment as Associate Justice. In his remarks announcing his intention to nominate her the President said “She is truly a person for all seasons, possessing those unique qualities of temperament, fairness, intellectual capacity, and devotion to the public good which have characterized the 101 brethren who have preceded her. I commend her to you, and I urge the Senate's swift bipartisan confirmation so that as soon as possible she may take her seat on the Court and her place in history.”[xxvi]

And so we mark the end of the family’s association with the house that started some 25 years prior with a commitment to public service that would grow and continue to evolve until it would ultimately help define the very law of the land. From humble beginnings as a community activist to a career that would make her “the first woman on the court and thus the most powerful woman in the United States”, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor personified the honesty, the integrity, the very spirit itself of Arizona and the American Southwest.[xxvii]

Finally, we are fortunate to also have an opinion of eligibility available from the Arizona State Historic Preservation Officer that addresses continued eligibility of the property in consideration of relocation. According to Jim Garrison, the design of the house borrows from the styles of nationally renowned architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Cliff May. Garrison has reviewed the house's eligibility listing in the National Register of Historic Places, and has provided HPO with a preliminary opinion of eligibility under Criteria B and C at the regional (State) level of significance based on the successful repurposing of the house as a mediation center rather than a museum memorializing her life.[xxviii]

RESOURCES 
Mayor's Nomination Letter : : 11/04/10 to Historic Preservation Commission .pdf 

Research Report to Historic Preservation Commission : : 11/04/10 Neighborhood Meeting at HPC .pdf 

Staff Summary Report to Historic Preservation Commission : : 12/09/10 Public Hearing at HPC .pdf 

Supplemental Research Regarding Property Move : : 12/09/10 Public Hearing at HPC .pdf 

Staff Report to Development Review Commission : : 12/14/10 Public Hearing at DRC .pdf 

Staff Report to City Council : : 01/13/11 Public Hearing at CC

ORDINANCE NO. 2010.45 .pdf 

National Register Nomination : : 11/18/11 Arizona Historic Sites Review Committee

ENDNOTES
[i] City of Tempe, Tempe Historic Preservation Plan, Adopted 17 July 1997 by the Tempe City Council, Resolution 97.44; revisions adopted 15 June 2000, Resolution 2000.34. accessed online 10/27/2010 at: http://www.tempe.gov/historicpres/Plan.htm “IV. Policies 2. Preservation "in place" is the preferred outcome for the long-term management of historic properties. When this is not possible, relocation or documentation is the recommended alternative to preserve the historic characteristics of the property.

[ii] National Trust for Historic Preservation: “Justice for Sandra Day O'Connor's House: An Adobe Finds a New Home and Purpose” by Janice Arenofsky, April 3, 2009, accessed online 10/27/2010 at: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/story-of-the-week/2009/justice-for-sandra-day.html “Brick by brick, shingle by shingle, the family home of Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor arrived this past February at a two-acre plot on the western end of Papago Park in the heart of Tempe, Ariz. The relocation—from Denton Lane in Paradise Valley to a tract of unspoiled desert—was the work of a grassroots group of civic-minded citizens who enthusiastically endorsed Justice O'Connor's wish to re-purpose the house as a "Camp David" of the Southwest. Her vision, born from past experiences, is to bring together world leaders who can offer insight and methodology on specific issues. "The years I was in the Senate we would host gatherings at the house for senators," O'Connor told the Arizona Republic. "We would have senators from both sides of the aisle. And the state department would often send young leaders from around the world …. We'd talk about each other's countries and how [it] would be a better place if we knew more about each other."

[iii] City of Tempe, Interactive Maps: Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability, accessed online 10/27/2010 at: http://www.tempe.gov/maps/StandardDetails.aspx?LocationID=affdfb4d-fb14-4cef-b74a-b8f0a2dfa0c9 “The O'Connor House relocation to the Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability was a community-based effort to relocate the original adobe bricks and the spirit of the home of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and husband John O’Connor. The O’Connor House…where civil talk leads to civic action ...is open to the public by appointment as a gathering place where groups can move beyond their differences in a beautiful desert setting and focus on the hard work of finding solutions to challenges.

[iv] U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, “How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation: Section VII. How To Apply The Criteria Considerations” accessed online 10/27/2010 at: http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_7.htm#crit con b "Ordinarily cemeteries, birthplaces, or graves of historical figures, properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious purposes, structures that have been moved from their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings, properties primarily commemorative in nature, and properties that have achieved significance within the past fifty years shall not be considered eligible for the National Register. However, such properties will qualify if they are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria or if they fall within the following categories: b. a building or structure removed from its original location but which is significant primarily for architectural value, or which is the surviving structure most importantly associated with a historic person or event…”

[v] Supreme Court of the United States: About the Supreme Court - accessed 10/27/2010 online at: http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members.aspx

[vi] Special for The Republic by Kathy Shayna Shocket - May. 5, 2008: “Justice's adobe home slated for preservation accessed 10/27/2010 online at: http://www.oconnorhouse.org/azr05052008.html "My husband John and I first bought over an acre of land for a grand sum of $4,000," the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice said during a nostalgic visit just before workers began dismantling the home for its move to Tempe. "The years I was in the Senate we would host gatherings at the house for the senators," she said, recalling the times when disputed Senate bills were drafted in the home's cozy Southwestern ambiance. "I would fix chalupas and Mexican food and all the trimmings. I remember sessions in the living room area with various leaders in the community and talking about provisions for Arizona that would keep it out of debt but allow progress to be made. And the state department would often send young leaders from around the world to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, and John and I would have them over for dinner. We'd talk about each other's countries and how the world would be a better place if we knew more about each other."

[vii] City of Tempe, Tempe City Code Chapter 14A – Tempe Historic Preservation Ordinance, Ord. No. 95.35, 11-9-95; Ord. No. 2004.42, 1-20-05 accessed 10/27/2010 online at: http://www.tempe.gov/citycode/14aHistoricPreservation.htm §14A-2, Definitions: Landmark means a designation, in the form of overlay zoning, applied to an individual property, as a result of formal adoption by the city council, which has achieved significance within the past fifty (50) years and which expresses a distinctive character worthy of preservation and which otherwise fulfills or exceeds the criteria for designation as an historic property.

[viii] City of Tempe, Tempe City Code Chapter 14A – Tempe Historic Preservation Ordinance, Ord. No. 95.35, 11-9-95; Ord. No. 2004.42, 1-20-05 accessed 10/27/2010 online at: http://www.tempe.gov/citycode/14aHistoricPreservation.htm §14A- 4.(a)(3) If it has achieved significance within the past fifty (50) years, it shall be considered eligible for designation as a landmark if it is an integral and critical part of an historic district or demonstrates exceptional individual importance by otherwise meeting or exceeding the criteria specified in paragraphs (1) or (2) of this subsection above. At such time as a landmark becomes fifty (50) years old, it will automatically be reclassified as an historic property.

[ix] City of Tempe, Mayor Hugh Hallman, letter to Tempe HPC dated 11/04/2010 citing President Ronald Regan’s remarks announcing the Intention to Nominate Sandra Day O’Connor to Be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Sates” available through the University of Texas electronic archive, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/70781a.htm “When President Reagan called Senator Goldwater to tell him he planned to nominate Sandra Day O’Connor to the United States Supreme Court he referred to her as the “Daughter of Arizona”…. He said, “She is truly a person for all seasons, possessing those unique qualities of temperament, fairness, intellectual capacity, and devotion to the public good which have characterized the 101 brethren who have preceded her.” The President said, “Those who sit in the Supreme Court interpret the laws of our land and truly do leave their footprints on the sands of time.”

[x] National Trust for Historic Preservation: “Justice for Sandra Day O'Connor's House: An Adobe Finds a New Home and Purpose” by Janice Arenofsky, April 3, 2009, accessed online 10/27/2010 at: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/story-of-the-week/2009/justice-for-sandra-day.html “In Justice O'Connor's world, man and nature should strive for harmony. It is her vision, as set forth in the project’s mission statement, that the O'Connor House should flourish as a ‘pragmatic tool in public affairs’ that provides ‘best practices.’ She hopes the O'Connor House will help people evolve beyond the polarizing rhetoric and lead them to real outcomes. Justice O'Connor believes her former home conveys a commonsense credo. As she told the Arizona Republic, ‘It's a humble house, but it's part of the earth.’”

[xi] U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, How To Evaluate The Integrity Of A Property accessed 10/27/2010 online at http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_8.htm “Location is the place where the historic property was constructed or the place where the historic event occurred. The relationship between the property and its location is often important to understanding why the property was created or why something happened. The actual location of a historic property, complemented by its setting, is particularly important in recapturing the sense of historic events and persons.” Integrity of location need not be present for the nomination as proposed.

[xii] Garrison, James, Arizona State Historic Preservation Officer, 09/24/2010 telephone conversation with Joe Nucci, Tempe Historic Preservation Officer, conversation record on file at Tempe HPO. Garrison emphasized that the property could, in his opinion, also be eligible under NPS Criterion C, as it demonstrates a high level of design sophistication for its time and in consideration of the materials used. Specifically, Garrison noted the three-dimensional characteristics of the south facing glazing as worthy of recognition for its architectural innovation. HPO indicated the local nomination would consider only the extraordinary biographical association so as to avoid encouraging moving properties as a preservation solution consistent with the general policy of the Tempe Historic Preservation Commission.

[xiii] Garrison, James, 1999; Aspects of Integrity: Generalized Application, accessed online 10/27/2010 at: http://www.tempe.gov/historicpres/GLOSSARY_PAGES/GarrisonIntegrityMatrix.pdf State Historic Preservation Officer Jim Garrison created a matrix entitled “Aspects of Integrity: Generalized Application” to illustrate how to evaluate the integrity of a property. This chart indicates those aspects of integrity that must be present for different property types to remain eligible. For example, to identify aspects necessary for a District to maintain eligibility under criteria C (Design/Construction) enter the chart criteria column at “C – Design/Construction” and move across to the property type column for “District”, to see that four of the seven aspects of integrity must be present to maintain the integrity of a district that has significance under criteria C, they are; Setting, Design, Feeling, and Materials. (see chart below)]

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv] National Trust for Historic Preservation: “Justice for Sandra Day O'Connor's House: An Adobe Finds a New Home and Purpose” by Janice Arenofsky, April 3, 2009, accessed online 10/27/2010 at: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/story-of-the-week/2009/justice-for-sandra-day.html “While the original site took advantage of the picturesque Praying Monk formation on Camelback Mountain, the new location opens up to the majestic Four Peaks in the McDowell Mountains. When several cottonwood trees had to be uprooted to cut a path from the house to the nearby Arizona Historical Museum, the vegetation was recycled at the Phoenix Zoo as elephant food. Also, workers, whenever possible, restored disturbed areas to their original state.—for instance, construction workers cemented over a 60-foot-long water main and covered that with the removed topsoil.”

[xvi] City of Tempe, The Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability, accessed 10/27/2010 online at http://www.tempe.gov/conservation/images/Carl%20Hayden%20Campus.pdf “The Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability weaves together the interconnected elements of the Papago Park landscape and honors our unique environment, our community’s diverse cultures, and its rich history. The campus includes natural and built elements that together form the opportunity to demonstrate the purpose and meaning behind our community’s approach to sustainability. The Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability borders the original Papago-Saguaro National Monument. It includes the Green Line riparian area, the Arizona Historical Society Museum, the O’Connor House and Center for Civic Discourse, the Tempe Women’s Club Xeriscape Demonstration Garden, the LoPiano Mesquite Bosque, Loma del Rio Hohokam Ruin, Evelyn Hallman Park, and the historic Eisendrath House and Center for Water Conservation with its associated nine acres of indigenous Sonoran Desert.

[xvii] Náñez, Dianna M.: The Arizona Republic - Oct. 22, 2009: Justice's old house finds a new home accessed 10/27/2010 online at: http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2009/10/22/20091022oconnorhouse1022.html#ixzz13Q6GTNU9

[xviii] Garrison, James, 1999; Aspects of Integrity: Generalized Application, accessed online 10/27/2010 at: http://www.tempe.gov/historicpres/GLOSSARY_PAGES/GarrisonIntegrityMatrix.pdf

[xix] Norman, Andrea in Arizona Attorney September, 2008, accessed 10/27/2010 online at http://www.oconnorhouse.org/pdf/0908-az-attorney-oconnor.pdf "In 1957, when the couple decided to build an adobe structure, few people knew how to build them or even where to acquire the bricks. One day, when discussing their dilemma, someone offered, ‘Why don’t you talk to Old Mister Ellis on Cattletrack Road?’ They did, and in 1957, George Ellis began forming the adobe bricks. He used the mud from the Salt River banks—the very materials from the very place that the Hohokam used for their homes so very long ago. Ellis, like the Native American construction crews that came before, shoveled the mud into brick-shaped forms, which were then baked in the sun.”

[xx] Modern Phoenix; “DK Taylor: Scottsdale's Mysterious Modern Master” accessed 10/27/2010 online at http://www.modernphoenix.net/dktaylor/index.html “Chances are, few people have ever seen the work designed by architect DK (Donald Keith) Taylor. Phoenix has had only glimpses into the life and works of this obscure but important architect. Other than the O’Connor House, we know of only one other Taylor-designed house in the Valley, his home in Clearwater Hills - and its not just good, its remarkable! Sadly, not too long after the financial troubles with the Clearwater Hills house, Taylor mysteriously disappeared from the Valley. There are no records showing that he was living or working here after 1963.”

[xxi] U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, How To Evaluate The Integrity Of A Property accessed 10/27/2010 online at http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_8.htm  “Feeling is a property's expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time. It results from the presence of physical features that, taken together, convey the property's historic character.” For example, an early ranch-style house retaining original design, workmanship, and materials will relate the feeling of hand craftsmanship and onsite construction methods in residential construction before World War II. Integrity of feeling is a condition precedent to the nomination as proposed.

[xxii] City of Tempe, The Carl Hayden Campus for Sustainability, accessed 10/27/2010 online at http://www.tempe.gov/conservation/images/Carl%20Hayden%20Campus.pdf “A fundamental element of the campus is the lush Green Line, a natural riparian area framed with reeds, cottonwoods and native flowering shrubs. The Green Line meanders through the Campus for Sustainability, a perpetual stream that originates in the Verde and Salt rivers, and runs through the Johnny G. Martinez Water Plant. Both the Salt and the Verde contribute water to the Valley’s canal system. This life-sustaining system, originally constructed by the Hohokam people millennia ago, connects us physically to the ancient past and provides the means to bring water to our current society. The Green Line tributary is a living ecosystem that provides an opportunity to observe the critical role of riparian areas in this arid desert environment.”

[xxiii] U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, How To Evaluate The Integrity Of A Property accessed 10/27/2010 online at http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_8.htm

“Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and a historic property. A property retains association if it is the place where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently intact to convey that relationship to an observer. Like feeling, association requires the presence of physical features that convey a property's historic character.” For example, an early ranch-style house on a property whose natural and manmade elements have remained intact since the 1930s will retain its quality of association with the initial development of the subdivision and early suburban expansion within the original townsite. Integrity of association need not be present for the nomination as proposed.

[xxiv] Special for The Republic by Kathy Shayna Shocket - May. 5, 2008: “Justice's adobe home slated for preservation accessed 10/27/2010 online at: http://www.oconnorhouse.org/azr05052008.html "The 50-year-old adobe home where Sandra Day O'Connor often turned heated state politics into decisions over chalupas and tortillas will reign supreme once more as an arena for civic discourse. Rather than watching the adobe tucked away on a Paradise Valley cul-de-sac fall to a bulldozer, O'Connor and her friends are saving the home where she and husband John raised their three sons, Scott, Brian and Jay.”

[xxv] Andrea Norman, “From The Mud of The Salt,” Arizona Attorney Magazine, September, 2008 accessed 10/27/2010 online at: http://www.oconnorhouse.org/pdf/0908-az-attorney-oconnor.pdf “O’Connor credits her adobe home with providing the setting for compromise and collaboration. Over potluck or specially prepared dinners, Justice O’Connor hosted Democrats and Republicans to reach bipartisan solutions for closely divided issues.”

[xxvi] Reagan, Ronald “Remarks Announcing the Intention To Nominate Sandra Day O'Connor To Be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States July 7, 1981 available through the University of Texas electronic archive and accessed online 11/25/2009 12:32 PM at: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/70781a.htm “Those who sit in the Supreme Court interpret the laws of our land and truly do leave their footprints on the sands of time. Long after the policies of Presidents and Senators and Congressmen of any given era may have passed from public memory, they'll be remembered. After very careful review and consideration, I have made the decision as to my nominee to fill the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court created by the resignation of Justice Stewart. Since I am aware of the great amount of speculation about this appointment, I want to share this very important decision with you as soon as possible.”

[xxvii] Lane, Charles, Washington Post Staff Writer, July 2, 2005, “In the Center, Hers Was the Vote That Counted” accessed online 11/25/2009 12:32 PM at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070101087.html “Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement leaves a hole at the center of the Supreme Court and, in a sense, at the center of the country. During her 24-year tenure, the Republican and Democratic parties came increasingly under the influence of their ideological cores, and Washington grew deeply polarized between left and right. But O'Connor remained something of a throwback: a moderate Republican, known as a broker of compromises during her long-ago tenure as Arizona's Senate majority leader, who used her pivotal position on the court to keep the law under which all Americans must live from veering toward any extreme. On a nine-member court that often mirrored the liberal-conservative split of the larger society, O'Connor repeatedly cast the fifth and deciding vote, not to establish sweeping new constitutional principles but to make law that she thought would make sense to the American people. The first woman on the court thus became the most powerful woman in the United States.”

[xxviii] Garrison, James, Arizona State Historic Preservation Officer, 09/24/2010 telephone conversation with Joe Nucci, Tempe Historic Preservation Officer, conversation record on file at Tempe HPO. Garrison emphasized that the property could, in his opinion, also be eligible under NPS Criterion C, as it demonstrates a high level of design sophistication for its time and in consideration of the materials used. Specifically, Garrison noted the three-dimensional characteristics of the south facing glazing as worthy of recognition for its architectural innovation. HPO indicated the local nomination would consider only the extraordinary biographical association so as to avoid encouraging moving properties as a preservation solution consistent with the general policy of the Tempe Historic Preservation Commission.