Tempe Historic Property Survey

J. Howard Pyle and his wife, Lucile Hanna Pyle, built the house around 1938 and owned it for the next 27 years. Howard Pyle was governor of Arizona from 1950 to 1954. His career started as a radio announcer for KTAR radio. After his stint as Governor, he served the Eisenhower Administration on the National Transportation and Safety Board. In his later years, he was highly respected as an elder statesman and actively involved in historic preservation issues. The house is located in the Park Tract subdivision, which was platted in August of 1924. This home is an example of later infill construction in a developed area. Many lots had remained vacant from the original subdivision plat. During upswings in the economy, these lots were built on. The result is a mix of older and new houses in close proximity.

This building represents one of the larger Ranch houses in the neighborhood. It if very wide and shallow in size with most of its massing fronting onto the street. This is a typical feature of many Ranch style homes. Other typical features include steel casement windows and low-pitch roof. Mature landscaping obscures much of the front facade from view.

Oral History Excerpt, OH-114: Lucile Hanna Pyle, 12 June 1987, with Jean Stengel. Tempe Historical Museum interview (page 36):

STENGEL (Interviewer): Now I understand that you built a home in Tempe about a few years after you were married.
PYLE: Yes, down on Ash Avenue.
STENGEL: Now was that on the outskirts of Tempe at the time?
PYLE: Yes.
STENGEL: What, what, nineteen thirty-seven?
PYLE: Nineteen thirty-seven, thirty-eight. Nineteen thirty-eight (1938).
STENGEL: Uh huh. And did you purchase the land and the house and ...
PYLE: We bought the lot for two hundred and sixty dollars, and we built the house for thirty-five hundred. Brick. Had two bedrooms at the time.
STENGEL: Two story?
PYLE: No. No. Oh my, we couldn't afford those two. So. And we lived there for twenty-seven years.
STENGEL: Now when, you decided to build a house, this was in the late thirties, and it was a, the Depression was kind of getting over so, how did you do that? Did you contract a contractor to do it? Or did you, like we do now, we go out and look at houses and buy one.
PYLE: No. We contracted for it, because that's what you did in those days. They didn't have them built like today. You just had to go and hope that you could get a good deal, you know.
STENGEL: Did you, were you, a, did you go daily and supervise the building of the house or were you...
PYLE: Oh yeah, I worked some, and I was working some, and Howard was. And we'd go by. And a, at that time my mother and father were living, and Mary Lou could stay with them. We had Mary Lou a, nineteen thirty-seven. And a, she could go and stay with them. And if we needed to do something. And a, so we would go down nearly every evening. We'd take her, of course, too. And a...

END OF HOUSE DISCUSSION

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