(upbeat music) - For over the past 60 years, Arizona PBS has told incredible stories of Arizona's distinctive people, beautiful landscapes, and treasured history.

Now relive those memories we've pulled from the vault.

Hello, I'm Alberto Rios.

History trivia.

Do you know who the first governor of Arizona was?

If you said George W.P.

Hunt, you're right.

"From The Vault" goes back in time to show his captivating life and a Victorian house in Mesa you have to see.

"From The Vault" presents "Arizona Stories".

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Local developer Del Webb was among Arizona's foremost builders, with a resume that included Office Towers, the Pink Flamingo Motel in Las Vegas, and Minute Man Missile Silos.

But his real fame in the 60s came from turning a 10,000 acre cotton field into Sun City.

No other developer had exploited the housing market for retirees with a development as large as this.

And no one was sure it would work.

- One of the problems that we knew we were gonna run into was to try to get an elderly person to leave a city where they had lived for all their lives.

But we thought if we could develop it on such a scale that when they came out, saw what they were going to get, the weather, everything else, why they would make that move.

- [Narrator] So the company conceived of an affordable community segregated by age.

It was orderly and spotless, near a city, yet insulated from urban problems.

With ample opportunities for recreation and socializing.

People didn't just buy a house, they bought a way of life.

Then the company took the modern tactic of sending a marketing researcher to Florida to survey retirees.

- And when he came back, he said one of the biggest problems that he ran into was that the people were unhappy because the developer either didn't do what he said he was gonna do or he did it on a much smaller basis.

So we decided if we were gonna get into a Sun City or retirement community, the best thing for us to do was to put all of the amenities in ahead of time - [Narrator] The company poured money into building a golf course, shopping center, rec center, and restaurant, and spent even more on national publicity.

A film produced in the early 60s reveals the marketing strategy, which portrayed retirement as a dull, lonely existence, with senior citizens plagued by rowdy neighborhood kids.

- [Child] It broke.

- [Ben] So this is retirement.

Time on your hands with no place to go.

There must be something else.

- Ben, let's go west.

I know, let's go to Arizona.

- [Ben] I wondered if she felt all right.

Arizona of all places, why not Timbuktu?

(bright music) - [Narrator] But he has a change of heart and heads out to Phoenix.

Not surprisingly, the characters discover that Sun City is a haven from winter, boredom, and urban problems.

- [Ben] This was one of the fullest, most rewarding days I've had in months.

And for the first time in months, I was looking forward to tomorrow.

(bright music) - [Narrator] But back on opening day, January 1st, 1960, no one really knew how fast those lots would sell.

- We wondered whether anybody was gonna come and we got out there early.

And then we heard that there was a traffic jam from 107th Avenue almost all the way back to Peoria.

So I called secretaries as best I could in the Webb company and also executives.

And I got receipt books from Safeway and I passed them out to the executives and secretaries.

And I said, "just get a lot number and $500 and the people's name and address and we'll call them later".

So that's how we did.

- [Narrator] Sun City became an immediate success.

And most residents loved living here.

- Del Webb put a new twist on it, made it almost sexy to be elderly, white, and segregated.

But I think in terms of the growth of the Northwest Valley and the growth of an idea as Arizona as a retirement center rivaling California and Florida, it was the work of pure genius.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music ends) (bright music) - [Narrator] Arizona's first governor may be the state's most memorable, if not the most recognizable.

- He's bellicose, he's got the big mustache, big physique, wears the white suits.

I mean, he really knows how to portray himself politically.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] George Wiley Paul Hunt was born in 1859 in Huntsville, Missouri, a town named after his grandfather.

Still in his teens, he left home seeking work and adventure in Colorado and New Mexico.

Hunt made his way to Arizona a few years later in 1881.

- When he arrived in Globe, he came in like a prospector wearing overalls, driving a burro, got a job as a waiter in Pasco's Restaurant there in Globe.

- [Narrator] Hunt later went to work for a local mercantile and bank called the Old Dominion Commercial Company.

Within 10 years, he was its president.

It was in Globe that hunt found his calling in politics.

- He's a very friendly person and very outgoing person, the perfect politician, I think.

And so he decides to run for a county office and that's how he launches his political career.

- [Narrator] Hunt lost, but in 1892, was elected as a Democrat to the territorial house of representatives.

He served seven terms in both the house and council, which is now the Senate.

Hunt was elected to preside over the Arizona Constitutional Convention in 1910.

At Hunt's request, the constitution did not give women the right to vote.

- It was purely political.

He felt that there was so much controversy in the state at that time over women's suffrage that if he championed that in the Constitutional Convention, it would sidetrack a number of other issues that were not more important, but that could have brought the constitution down.

And he wanted to make sure that we became a state.

(bright music) - [Narrator] Women got the right to vote the year Arizona became a state, and George Wiley Paul Hunt, its first governor.

- [Phil] He lived in the Ford Hotel when Arizona became a state and he walked from downtown Phoenix out to the Capitol for the inauguration.

He immediately then authorized the purchase of a car for the state.

And critics said that walk was the last time that Hunt walked.

The rest of the time, he used the car and the chauffeur and traveled about.

- [Narrator] Hunt used the car to travel the state, always bringing a camera, pen, and paper.

He took thousands of pictures and wrote more personal letters than any other governor.

- [Phil] And driving about the state after he became governor and he drove constantly almost, he would pick up hitchhikers.

It was not unusual to invite indigents into lunch.

He identified with the working people I think.

- [Narrator] The poor treatment of prison inmates became a priority with Hunt.

- [Phil] He was interested in prison reform right down to how they lived when he would go down and he would go down frequently.

Sometimes monthly.

Spend the night, he slept in a cell.

He would eat in the prison dining hall.

He started the honor system there at the prison.

- [Narrator] Hunt used prison work crews to build some of Arizona's first highways.

Executions were even outlawed for a brief period thanks to Hunt's sheer will and determination.

His pension for the common man helped him get elected governor a total of seven times, but his demanding style wore thin on some.

- There were those who felt that he was becoming virtually a dictator.

He becomes known as he ran his later elections, as Hunt the Fifth and Hunt the Sixth and Hunt the Seventh.

- [Narrator] Hunt also served as the ambassador to Siam, which is now Thailand.

While there he continued his prolific writing, a passion that proved its worth 20 years earlier.

His letters to the daughter of a Payson rancher helped rekindle a relationship that had broken off because of the woman's duty to her family's ranch.

- [Melanie] They really did have a very beautiful relationship.

And you can read it by reading their letters, you can just feel this incredible closeness that they had.

- [Narrator] The legacy of George and Duett Hunt can still be seen today.

When Hunt died in 1934, he was laid to rest next to Duett in a white pyramid at Phoenix Papago Park.

- I think sort of a capstone to his life that there he is as large as life in this white pyramid out in the middle of Papago Park, you can't miss it, just like you can't miss him.

I mean, he really had an indelible effect on Arizona's early years of statehood.

He was a very, very, I think probably the most important figure as far as Arizona goes in what ended up happening in our government.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Just east of I-19 between Tucson and Nogales lies the town of Tubac.

Tubac was once a Spanish Presidio, Arizona's first European settlement.

It was a Confederate outpost, the home of Charles Poston, the father of Arizona, and even produced Arizona's first newspaper.

Tubac has been abandoned and come back to life so many times it has been called the City With Nine Lives.

In the 1950s, it seemed once again to be slipping into obscurity.

Yet today it is the home of Arizona's first state park and a thriving artist community.

(bright music) - It's a privilege for me to be here and to address all of you attending this annual Memorial service in order to pay homage to our 23 Royal Air Force coverage that lie herein.

But at the same time I ask you not to forget the five Americans who served and died with them.

(choir singing indistinctly) - [Narrator] Every year at this cemetery in Mesa, former British pilots returned to remember the men who died while training at Falcon Field during World War II.

It's a unique ceremony celebrating the bond between the United States and Great Britain in war and peace.

- We who were involved in this scheme will never frankly forget what you did for us.

- Hello America.

This is Edward Murrow speaking from London.

There were more German planes over the coast of Britain today than at any time since the war began.

- [Narrator] Before the United States had entered the war, the British were desperate to train new pilots.

What the United States did for Britain was to participate in the empire air training scheme.

- [Bill] We didn't have the weather, we didn't have the air bases, we didn't have the airplanes, we didn't have the gasoline of course for it.

And there was always a chance to be shot down.

General Hap Arnold came across just after the Battle of Britain and offered places at the American schools.

And the idea came up that they should have some British schools running to the British syllabus run by American instructors with RAF supervision.

It was exceptionally important that we got pilots from every source we possibly could because the death toll was pretty high in the early days as you can imagine.

- [Narrator] British pilots began training in the Sonoran Desert at Falcon Field in 1941.

- We arrived at the Mesa station.

My course did in August of 1942.

And when those doors opened on the train, it was like walking into a wall of fire.

And there were two Mesa school buses parked outside that had been there for a couple of hours.

And we all had RAF uniform on about half an inch thick wool.

And by the time we got to Falcon Field, six miles away, we'd all lost 10 pounds.

- I can't speak highly enough of the local population, how they accepted us.

I mean, when we actually arrived on the first Saturday that we were allowed out, we had exactly 200 cars came to the main gate to request us to join them for the weekend.

(bright jazz music) - [Narrator] Some of the recruits had never even driven a car.

Nevertheless, they were expected to fly trainers such as Stearmans and the AT-6.

- I was taxiing rather too fast in an AT-68, and I put on the brakes and up went the tail and down went the nose, and I had to sit there and wait until they pulled the tail back there.

Having done quite a bit of damage to I'm sure the prop.

- [Narrator] Most of the aircraft maintenance was done at night and frequently by women who played a large role in Falcon Field's success.

- We were invited over to the state teacher's college at Tempe for some formal dances, et cetera.

And we met some very pleasant young ladies over there which eventually we used to go out on a Saturday afternoon in the desert for weenie roast.

And we remember once that we were out there enjoying our weenie roast when we saw in the distance, there must have been about six chaps who were at least six foot six.

The girls said to us, "don't start trouble".

I gathered that they were part of the football team.

Anyway, in actual fact, we met them and we finished up with the best of friends.

(bright jazz music continues) - [Narrator] Today, Falcon Field Airport is home for nearly 1,000 aircraft and multiple businesses.

Here at Falcon Field Park, very little remains of the site where the RAF cadets lived and trained.

The swimming pool was used in an initiation ritual.

- When you did your first solo on the PT-70 Stearman, into the pool you went, uniform and all.

Yes, indeed.

It was a great thing.

- [Narrator] A hearth still stands, although the building around it does not, where cadets once relaxed and talked about their daily challenges.

The old hangars are still at the field, although the area surrounding them has changed.

And activity in the park today is more likely to be play rather than work.

(bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace") The training at Falcon field helped defeat the Nazis in World War II.

It also formed a bond between American and English pilots and a bond between these British men and the Mesa community.

That relationship continues to this day, reflected perhaps most poignantly in the annual ceremony honoring the fallen pilots.

On this day in this cemetery, the pilots have, in a way, come home.

For there will always be a small but significant piece of British history in the heart of the city of Mesa.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music ends) (bright music) - [Narrator] In the very heart of a city that has seen a population growth of nearly a million people in the past 100 years, there remains one lasting trace of a time long past.

Though the restored Victorian Rosson House is an elegant reminder of those times today, she did not always stand so proudly.

The year was 1894 and the young city of Phoenix was experiencing its first building boom ever.

Horses and carriages tread on unpaved roads and Washington, not Central, was the main drag.

Dr. Roland Lee Rosson and his family were prominent members in the community.

Dr. Rosson had established a medical practice and was active in politics.

His wife Flora came from an affluent family.

- [Vickie] Flora Rosson's half sister owned this land first.

She bought it shortly after the city was first surveyed.

It was at the edge of the town side of Phoenix.

- [Narrator] Flora purchased the land in 1882 for $1,000.

- At the time, newspaper articles were describing this as one of the finer areas in town.

- [Narrator] The house was completed in 1895.

The Rossons only lived there a short time before renting the house to an influential New York newspaper man named Whitelaw Reid.

- Whitelaw Reid's letters have been saved and they could tell us more information about the house than really we've gotten from any other early sources.

- [Narrator] In 1897, the Rossons sold the house to Phoenix merchant and legislator Aaron Goldberg.

The Goldbergs owned the house for about five years before selling it to Steven W. Higley.

Higley had at one point been publisher and part owner of the early Arizona Republican.

He also had some land south of Phoenix, and eventually the town of Higley was named after him.

S.W.

Higley then sold the house to the Gammel family who lived in the house for nearly 35 years.

- We moved here in 1914, I was five years old, and I lived here until 1948.

- [Narrator] Georgia Valeer is now 85 years old.

She was the youngest of the three Gammel daughters.

The family kept the downstairs rooms to themselves and rented the upstairs rooms as apartments.

- Well, my sisters and I, we had a lot of fun here and we had a lot of friends.

Governor Hunt, he would stop here as he said this was the halfway place between the Capitol and his home out there on McDowell.

And he would stop and sit out there on the porch and rocking back and forth and fanning himself.

And Mother would give him lemonade and lemon cookies.

- [Narrator] It is no surprise that the house appealed to such prominent early Phoenix residents, with its steeply angled roofs, long chimneys, and delicately ornamented gables.

The corners of these gables made excellent nesting areas for pigeons.

And one time the sisters decided they had to have a pigeon of their own.

- [Georgia] We got Tootie to crawl out this little window upstairs in the attic up there.

She crawled out and walked on that two by four and got a little baby squab.

Well, when my mother discovered what we did, oh, she said she could have fell.

- [Narrator] Other changes included enclosing the upstairs patio and painting the house white.

After the Valeers sold the house, it exchanged hands several times.

And for about 25 years, it served as a rooming house.

- Oh, I used to feel so bad when I'd passed here and noticed how the old house was just deteriorating.

It just looked terrible.

It just made me so sad that I hated to pass by here.

- [Narrator] 19 people lived in the house when the city of Phoenix bought it in 1974.

A restoration committee headed by former mayor John Driggs was appointed in 1975 and the project was underway.

It was funded solely through community support.

- We asked a lot of companies to contribute cash.

A lot of them stepped right up and contributed services.

Suppliers contributed materials.

And it was a true community effort.

We had whole teams of architects out here volunteering their time on Saturdays, measuring the entire house in great detail to do a set of drawings that the house literally could have been built from scratch.

- [Narrator] The first thing that had to be done was to tear down all of the additional rooms that had been built onto the house.

Based almost completely on early photographs, reconstruction of the house began.

The iron cresting along the ridge of the roof was recast in New Orleans.

The curved corbels were duplicated and replaced.

And 2,000 shingles were added to the roof.

- Now that is the original tower and those shingles, those oak leaf shingles, are the original ones that were installed in 1895.

Now the weather vane there is exactly the same and it's been standing there for 100 years.

- [Narrator] As crews were progressing on the exterior of the house, workers on the inside were also making exciting discoveries.

- During the restoration, the workmen felt like they were detectives trying to determine what had been here before.

Started with the floors, they were covered in later years with tar paper and linoleum.

When they took up each layer, they found parkay borders in all of the various rooms downstairs.

And they'd been protected over the years as the house was deteriorating.

The wallpaper required a lot of work during the restoration.

The workmen had to go through each layer, take off piece by piece, and all of the rooms had different papers too.

Then when they got to the bottom layer of paper, they took as large as sample as they could off the wall, sent it back east to be authenticated.

Once it was authenticated, then it was reproduced.

- [Narrator] Ironically, the house that took the Rossons six months to build took almost six years to restore.

And though the house originally cost only $7,500 to build, restoration costs totaled $750,000.

Today, the Rosson House is one of the eight historical homes that grace Heritage Square downtown.

- [John] When you walk in the front door of the Rosson House, it's like a step back in time.

It's our roots.

And as you go through the house, you'll see so much.

And each time you come back, you'll see more.

There's so much to our past.

History is so important.

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