A happy hour fundraiser held Saturday night at DeSoto Central Market served to update the community on the campaign to preserve the historic Wurth House that made its move across Roosevelt Street over the summer.
The event featured a presentation by Kimber Lanning, founder and executive director of Local First Arizona and the house’s avior, that included the story of the house and a slide show about the project.
The project is currently in its fundraising stage and has 10 percent funding 15 days in to the 60-day campaign, according to the project’s Indiegogo fundraising page.
Related: Wurth House developers map out future of historic Roosevelt building
“It’s a symbol of restoration for keeping what we care about, the history of our community old and new together, and we have to get this going,” board president of the Arizona Preservation Foundation, Jim McPherson said. “We’re 10 percent there. We need to raise $79,000. We can do it.”
The Wurth House will function as the welcome center for Roosevelt Row CDC and additional offices for Local First Arizona. Funds raised will go towards engineering, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical work, and Lanning said she is hoping the space will be open by summer.
“We’re willing to work with Kimber to help her in any way we can throughout this process to make this building successful in the future as a new office for Local First,” co-owner of redevelopment company Venue Projects, Jon Kitchell said. “And who knows what evolves from there.”
In her presentation at the event, Lanning shared the history of the home. It all started when APS posted photos of the house’s move in their newsletter. An APS employee in Prescott saw the photos and immediately recognized the house as the one her grandfather, Felix Wurth, built in 1911.
From that information, Lanning said she was able to fill in the missing pieces of the story and give the home its official name, the Wurth House.
“It’s been an amazing opportunity to learn about the Wurth family and to watch this heritage unfold,” Lanning said.
The event even featured a signature cocktail named “The Felix” after the original owner of the home.
Lanning and the two guest speakers, McPherson and Kitchell, stressed the importance of not just the preservation of the Wurth House, but historic preservation in downtown Phoenix in general.
“Critically important is that we start to fill in the few remaining dirt lots that are there and work to protect and preserve the two continuous blocks of bungalows that have been there since the turn of the century, because they’re really the only two left in the whole downtown core,” Lanning said.
McPherson said preservation and redevelopment of historic spaces is even more important on Roosevelt Row because the area serves as a sort of gateway into downtown.
“While we might not be able to purchase the house outright, I think collectively if each of us does our part, we can still save the house, and that really helps keep the legacy alive,” director of operations for the Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation, Nicole Underwood said.
“All contributions are welcome to save that building, to preserve this neighborhood, to keep the vision of historic Phoenix alive because we have challenges –- we know that –- we’re growing,” McPherson said. “Every building, we’ve lost so many, we’ve got to keep the ones we have.”
Contact the reporter at mallory.prater@asu.edu
