Survey Number: T-399
Year Built: 1940
Architectural Style: French Provincial Ranch
SUMMARY
The 1940 Wexler (Deskin / Wagner) House is significant for its association with Tempe’s 1924 Park Tract addition and for its association with Charles Wexler, a longtime mathematics instructor at Arizona State University. The house is also significant as a rare local variant of Transitional/Early Ranch style residential architecture, the obscure French Provincial form.
A: HISTORIC EVENTS
Park Tract, just west of the ASU campus, forms the middle section of Tempe’s Maple-Ash neighborhood, bounded by 10th Street, Mill Avenue, 13th Street, and the Union-Pacific Railroad tracks. Platted in 1924, Park Tract contains homes built primarily during the first half of the twentieth century, and could qualify as an historic district.
B: BIOGRAPHICAL
Charles and Helen Wexler acquired Lot 4, Block 3 of Park Tract in October 1939. The couple mortgaged the property in January 1940 and built the house at 1215 South Maple Avenue soon thereafter. Charles Wexler taught mathematics at Arizona State Teachers College (renamed Arizona State University during his tenure) and chaired the Department of Mathematics. Wexler accumulated 47 years of service, an institutional record. Charles Wexler Hall is named for him.
C: ARCHITECTURE
The Wexler House is a one-story, wood frame, Ranch-style house. Irregular in plan, the house sits on a concrete foundation with stuccoed walls topped by a medium-pitched, hipped roof with overhanging eaves. A corner entry porch supported by wood posts shades the house’s single-leaf entryway. Windows are steel casement with decorative shutters and awnings on the house’s west elevation.
SOURCES
Tempe city directories and telephone directories
Property records on file at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office
http://math.asu.edu/WexlerAwards
RESOURCES
Research Report to Historic Preservation Commission : : Neighborhood Meeting at HPC
Staff Summary Report to Historic Preservation Commission : : Public Hearing at HPC
Staff Report to Development Review Commission : : Public Hearing at DRC
Staff Report to City Council : : Public Hearing at CC
Staff Report to City Council : : Public Hearing at CC
ORDINANCE NO. 2012.05
Gage Addition & Park Tract Historic Contexts : : Nathan Hallam / Tempe HPO 2012