YEAR BUILT: 1880

HISTORY
Built in 1880 by Ramon Gonzales, the Gonzales-Martinez House is one of only three remaining structures associated with Tempe’s first ten years of history. It is also a rare surviving building that helps relate the early history of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in Tempe.

Ramon Gonzales was a freighter in Tucson, where he worked for Charles T. Hayden’s freighting and shipping company. In 1877, Gonzales, alongside many other Hispanic workers, left Tucson and followed Hayden to what would later become Tempe. Hayden was the largest employer in the area at the time and many of his employees, like Gonzales, built their houses near Hayden’s Ferry (now Tempe).

Jesus Martinez acquired the property in 1892. During the Great Depression (1929-1939), the Martinez family allowed unhoused people traveling along the adjacent railroad to stay in shacks on their property. The Martinez family lived on the property for over 100 years, with Jesus’s great-grandson, Steven Sussex, being the last one. Carl Hayden, son of Charles Hayden and Arizona’s first US congressional representative and later a US senator, raised hogs on the property with Jesus’s uncle.

When the Territory of Arizona was established in 1863, an Act of Congress designated section 16 and 6 of each township as School Lands. Unfortunately, many members of the Hispanic community that lived in Tempe never made official ownership claims to the land on which they resided—and often worked. Those that did not possess legal ownership were designated as “squatters” and numerous lawsuits ensued that shifted land ownership to state and city governments.

Steven and Virginia Sussex continued to claim ownership to the land until the Superior Court of Arizona ruled in 2018 that they had no claim to the land and must vacate it. In 2023, the City of Tempe, which the court determined as the property’s rightful owner, entered into a development agreement with 1^st & Farmer LLC, a development group that had purchased the parcel directly to the west of the City-owned Gonzales-Martinez House parcel. As part of the development agreement, the City agreed to convey its parcel, including the historic house, to 1^st and Farmer and obligated 1^st and Farmer to assist in the preservation and rehabilitation of the Gonzales-Martinez House.

ARCHITECTURE
In its earliest incarnation, the Gonzales-Martinez House was a single-story plaster-covered adobe house that represented an early form of traditional Southwestern architecture. The original structure consists of rooms with a south-facing entry. The roof is double pitched and covered with wood shingles. While the floor was originally wood it has since been replaced with concrete.

In 1918, a two-room rear addition was added that was constructed with railroad ties. The roof of the original building was extended to cover the addition. The two sections of the 1918 portion functioned as a kitchen and a sleeping porch.

Modern additions (circa 1985) added a new main living area, a garage, and a laundry room, but these were removed in 2023, leaving only the original house and its earliest historic additions.

In 2026, the City, in collaboration with 1^st and Farmer, initiated a stabilization plan that included installing a new roof, rebuilding the previously collapsed east adobe wall, and repairing and replastering the other adobe walls.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
A Building Condition Assessment of the Gonzales-Martinez House. Motley Design Group, LLC. December 2017.

Gonzales-Martinez House Selective Demolition. Design Plans. Motley Design Group, LLC. September 2, 2023.

Janus Associates. “Inventory Number 142.” In Tempe Historic Property Survey. 1983.