On (last) Friday, we stopped by two local museums: the Sunnyslope Historical Society museum, and the Phoenix Fire Department’s “Historic Station 8.” We followed that up on Saturday with a stop at the Chandler Museum to see the exhibit on the Gila River War Relocation Camp (the largest “Japanese Internment Camp” during WWII, which was located just 20 minutes south of our house), and stop by an interpretive memorial in a local city park.
Why all the local museums? Well, it’s mostly due to being stuck in town on the weekend and Jen’s “Museums of Metro Phoenix” quest (no link yet, though we’re currently building her a website to track this stuff!).
Sunnyslope Historical Society Museum
Sunnyslope is a neighborhood in Phoenix on the south side of North Mountain and Shaw Butte. Disconnected from Phoenix by miles of open desert, it originated as a camp for tuberculosis sufferers, and grew into a more formal community when a local church built the Desert Mission for sufferers in the late 1920s. After four failed attempts at incorporation, it was eventually engulfed by the ever-expanding metro area via annexation into the City of Phoenix in 1959. The area was a happening spot for some time, but then fell into a bit of disrepair as other parts of the Valley prospered, only to see a small but growing “trendy” resurgence more recently.
The museum itself is located in a small relocated historic building that was among the very first drive-thru drugstores in the state. After a knock on the locked door, we were let in by a young woman, amidst apologies for all the papers and boxes strewn about the middle of the floor. At age 25, she is regarded as the youngest museum director in the country.
She explained that a local historian had recently died, and his heirs had just sent over a large shipment of his personal collection for her to sort and re-distribute to appropriate institutions. It was only a fraction of the total to be sent, so the museum would be closing for the entire summer just to process everything.—and hence why the door was locked when I had arrived. Apparently, the archives of the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame would be included in the donated collection.
It reminded me of how so much of our historical archives are preserved not because we’ve collectively invested in formally preserving our history, but because a small ad hoc group of committed folks proactively took it upon themselves to do so. It’s primarily a grassroots affair, only occasionally bolstered by a government grant or program or corporate donation.
The museum itself is a rather informal affair, what you’d expect of a small community history museum. There are some small display cases with various knickknacks of the times, donated by individuals and worked into some sort of themed collection. And there are posterboards on the walls, offering a smattering of historic black-and-white photos whose captions act as the primary interpretation, all held in place with clear pushpins.
Remarkably, the museum actually rotates exhibits, a rare feature for a small, vastly underfunded museum like this one. The museum director explained what she had in mind for next year’s exhibits. One of them, a historical photo collection related to Salt River Recreation—a longstanding tubing concessionaire that operates on the Lower Salt River where I often go kayaking—sparked my interest, and got us chatting about it and other historic preservation topics, including our Ahwatukee History project. By then, it was time to move on for lunch. But I’ll be back to see those Salt River photos.
Phoenix Fire’s Historic Station 8
After lunch, we headed south towards the Willo neighborhood of central Phoenix to visit a historic fire station, which acts as its own museum for the Phoenix Fire Department. Open only by request, we were greeted by an on-duty firefighter at our agreed upon time for what was essentially a free private tour. The building itself is located at the edge of a normal residential neighborhood. Indeed, if you ignore the oversized garage doors and the fire department decor, it could easily pass for a normal home. It was built in 1942 and operated until the early 1990s.
And inside, it sort of is a home, of course. The main exhibit space is in what you’d call the living room, with a small kitchen and dining room off to the side. The main room was a mismatch of historical items, dominated by a wall of photos showing the firefighters who had lost their lives on duty, as well as two older desks with stacks of files and papers and sporting a computer (think what you’d see as a 1980s police detective’s desk on tv, but with a computer). There was some firefighting equipment on the floor next to one of the display cases in the middle of the room, a recent donation from the kids of a longtime Phoenix firefighter.
We also toured the rest of the station, which included a locker room, restrooms, a large open dormitory, and a communications room. And, of course, the bay—which was dominated by a large historic firetruck.
The museum is an interesting endeavor. It’ll never be a “real” museum, with standardized archival practices and such, but it’s very much a historical collection of everything related to the Phoenix Fire Department. Our guide, Jim, seems to be a major catalyst for this whole enterprise. In fact, it became apparent that quite a bit of the information in this museum was researched, not collected over time. It’s a relatively recent project; Jim spoke several times on research he had conducted to add more depth to the basic facts they had. Again, I think that speaks to the important role of historical advocates—how many of these stories would be lost without various Jims helping to keep them alive?
Chandler Museum’s exhibit on Gila River
The Chandler Museum’s primary exhibit space offers a rotating exhibit. Right now, the primary space is occupied by Gaman: Enduring Japanese American Internment at Gila River, which runs through February 2026.
We’re quite familiar with this story. In fact, after stumbling on the Butte and Canal camps that comprised the Gila River “War Relocation Camp,” we took it upon ourselves to visit all ten of the major internment camps, plus some ancillary sites as well. As familiar as we are, I wanted to stop in and see if there were any additional details that we didn’t know about or historic photos that we hadn’t seen before.
What it looked like, versus what remains today:
Surprisingly, the exhibit delivered a few interesting tidbits that we hadn’t heard about. And it offered a number of historical photos (with National Archives references!) that were new to me. So, mission accomplished!
Nozomi Park
We noticed a reference to an interpretative display at a nearby city park, so we decided to stop by to take a look on our way home. Near the park’s baseball fields—the closest ones to where the Gila River camp was—is a prominent five-sided interpretative panel. It does a good job of detailing the broad history of the Gila River episode, from the initial executive order to the aftermath of the camp’s closure. A little league game was in progress during our visit, and I imagine this is the first significant exposure that many kids and parents might have had on this—even though the “exclusion line” ran through the metro area, separating the state into “free to stay” and “forced into relocation camps” sections.
