PLACES IN ARIZONA TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION
PLACES IN ARIZONA TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION
Pioneer
Museum
In 1906, the Pioneers Society of Northern Arizona was founded in
Flagstaff, Arizona It was reorganized in 1942 and again in 1953 and
renamed the Northern Arizona Pioneers Historical Society (NAPHS). In
1985, after serving the community as a private non-profit organization
for more
than 30 years, NAPHS transferred its holdings to the Arizona Historical
Society.
The Arizona Historical Society
s Pioneer Museum is located in the historic Coconino County Hospital
for the Indigent. The building was built in
1908 and served as the County Hospital until 1938. Local residents
referred to the building as the poor farm
because many of the patients were elderly men without families to care
for them. The building was later used as
a boarding house and as a private residence leased by farmers who lived
in it while leasing the surrounding farm
land from the County. In 1960, NAPHS bought the structure and converted
it into a museum, which opened to the public
in 1963.
Also located on the museum grounds is a
barn and root cellar that date from the period of the hospital. The
barn was built in 1910 to house county workhorses.
It is now the museum annex where many large collections are stored. The
root cellar, located behind the museum,
is where the hospital stored vegetables grown in the garden, which was
located next to the hospital (now Sechrist
School).
In 1967, the 1908 Ben Doney homestead cabin
was moved to the museum grounds from its original site on the east side
of Flagstaff. The cabin now serves as a
center for craft demonstrations that are held throughout the year.
The 1929 Baldwin Articulated Locomotive,
which sits at the front of the Pioneer Museum grounds along State
Highway 180, was moved to the museum site in
1994.
Pioneer Museum
2340 N. Ft. Valley
Road
Flagstaff, Arizona
86001
Phone: (928)
774-6272 Fax: (928) 774-1596
