In case you hadn’t heard, life is funny. We recently had an opportunity to be in Downtown Phoenix with a few hours to kill. Because it was a nice day, I thought my husband and I would walk around. We ended up at 7th Street and Monroe at the historic Heritage Square.

Now, given that Phoenix was founded around the time of the Civil War, my city isn’t as old as some (although the Pueblo Grande is over 1500 years old). But thanks to the City, one fabulous house managed to make it from the 1890s to present day and is now a museum.

The Rosson House was built for Dr. Rosson, who was a doctor at Fort McDowell, which was an actual military fort (today it’s a casino for the McDowell Indians). He and his wife spent $7,525 dollars on it and only lived there 2 years before the family relocated to San Diego.

Other families moved into the house and lived there longer. The daughter of the second owner actually told the city how the house looked when she lived there when they acquired it in 1974 and began restoration.

The square now contains several buildings, all historical buildings. Most were moved there to preserve them.  This carriage house was moved from a few blocks away and now serves as the gift shop. I love the garden and my husband and I decided to do something similar in our back yard.

This beautiful old church is just down the street and is across from the sprawling Phoenix Convention center (North Building) and smooshed between two high rises.