Tempe Historic Property Survey

This large Territorial style house was originally built as a small flat-roofed adobe home for Samuel Brown in 1883. Brown was a blacksmith who served as a member of the Territorial Legislature, Mayor of Tempe, and long-time President of the Alianza Hispano-Americana, an early civil rights organization. The house was bought by rancher William Strong in 1901. Strong enlarged the house, adding a veranda that went around all sides of the house, and a pyramidal roof. The house is representative of the Georgian Revival and Southern Colonial styles of architecture that were popular in Arizona around the turn of the century.

The Brown/Strong House is a rare surviving example of Tempe's earliest homes. Its design combines regional, vernacular material, adobe, with the high-style massing and detailing of Eastlake Victorian. The surrounding screened veranda and thick, insulating adobe walls demonstrate passive solar design strategies used in the arid southwest during the 19th century.

In the mid-1980s, construction began on the Centerpoint development in the southwest part of the downtown area. This required the clearing of one of Tempe's oldest neighborhoods. Most of the homes were demolished, and a few were relocated. However, because the Brown-Strong House was so important for its architecture and historical association, the Centerpoint developer agreed to preserve and rehabilitate the building in its original location.

More information on this building is available at the Tempe Historical Museum Research Library. See the File Contents for HPS-119.

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