City of Tempe, AZ

YEAR BUILT: 1892

HISTORY
The Governor Benjamin B. Moeur House was built in 1893 and bought by its namesake in 1898. Moeur made numerous changes and additions to the property over the years, including work in 1912 that remodeled the house into a Neo-Colonial Revival style appearance.

Benjamin B. Moeur was born in Franklin County, Tennessee, on December 22, 1869. A few years after his birth, the Moeur family moved to Texas to join extended family on a ranch and give his father a more suitable location to set up a medical practice.

After graduating high school and spending some time as a ranch hand, Moeur decided to pursue a medical degree at Arkansas Industrial University (now the University of Arkansas) in Little Rock. After finishing his post-graduate work at Rush Medical College in Chicago, Moeur returned to Texas, in 1896, to marry Honor Anderson.

Following his brother’s advice, who had moved to Arizona earlier, Moeur relocated to Arizona to start his own medical practice. He first practiced medicine in Tombstone before moving to Bisbee and becoming the Relief Physician for the Copper Queen hospital. However, the air pollution from the smelter caused Honor’s asthma to worsen, so the family moved to Tempe, where they settled down permanently.

Although Moeur practiced medicine in Arizona for many years, he did not receive his license to practice in Arizona until 1913. Moeur’s medical office changed locations throughout his career with the final location at the corner of Sixth Street and Myrtle Avenue, less than a block from his home, where he practiced medicine alongside his son John.

Doctors were in high demand in the early 1900s and Moeur was known to be one of the busiest and most popular traveling doctors in the Salt River Valley. His popularity mainly stemmed from his willingness to take long, sometimes perilous, trips to make house calls. One of his house calls entailed being transported across a canyon to attend to a patient at the Roosevelt Dam construction site.

In addition to practicing medicine, Moeur also had various business interests. He was part-owner of the Broadway and Moeur Drugstore in Tempe and became full owner in 1901. Moeur and his brother-in-law, J. K. Pafford, owned the ranching corporation Moeur-Pafford Company. In 1906, Moeur partnered with two other local businessmen to start the Tempe Hardware Company. He also served as president of the Southside Electric and Gas Company.

Moeur interests extended to politics and education. He served as a member of the Arizona Constitutional Convention – where he served as head of the education committee – and served two terms as Governor of the State of Arizona. Additionally, he served on the Tempe School District Board and the Tempe Normal School’s board. He also set up a scholarship and sponsored academic competitions at the Tempe Normal School.

Despite his dedication to education, Moeur advocated for segregated schools during the Arizona Constitutional Convention. During the Convention, Mouer said that, while many of his fellow delegates were fine with their children attending integrated schools, he would not allow his children to do so. Despite his position, the Convention’s education committee, which Moeur was head of, submitted a list of educational provisions that did not contain a provision for segregated schools.

The Democrat Moeur’s two terms as governor (1933-1937) were characterized by progressive actions on such issues as social security and labor.

Moeur died on March 16, 1937, less than three months after his second gubernatorial term ended.

The Governor B. B. Moeur House was restored in 1993 and was used as office space for the Tempe Community Council until 2026. Another building, Hatton Hall, was built on the property in 1993 to serve as a community building for City committees, nonprofit meetings, and events. Currently, a restaurant kitchen occupies Hatton Hall, and the Governor B. B. Moeur House provides indoor and outdoor seating for diners.

ARCHITECTURE
The Governor B. B. Moeur House was originally constructed in 1893 as a simple, two-room frame cottage. However, after Moeur bought the house, it went through extensive expansion over a 40-year period. The original two-bedroom frame cottage from 1893 is enclosed within the current structure and is in what is now the rear (north) wing of the house  The first expansion took place in 1901, after the birth of the Moeurs’ first two children. The 1901 addition to the front of the cottage created a “T” shaped floor plan.

In 1912, the house’s façade was updated to give it a more upscale appearance by transforming it into the then-popular Neo-Colonial Revival style. The house ultimately exhibited the façade of a Western Colonel Box-style house. An addition was added on the south side of the house in 1912. The remodeling that accompanied this addition gave the house a more contemporary design with its gabled hip roof, sweeping bell-cast eaves, and Bungalow-style porch. The inset porch features shingled elliptical arches which spring from truncated wood posts or brick piers. Two bay windows flank the central entry under the porch roof. The roof of the porch is accentuated with a centrally located hipped roof ventilator dormer with bell-cast eaves. The double-hung windows added during the 1912 renovation are multiple-light top sash over single-light bottom sash.

In 1929, three modifications were made to give the house its current appearance. All exterior walls were faced with brick and a side entry porch on the east wall was infilled with a brick arch opening to give access to a rear office/apartment. The original rear wing gable was enlarged and became a hip roof. The finished house measures 2,800 square feet.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
“B.B. Moeur Historical Home,” Tempe Community Council, archived March 12, 2025, at https://web.archive.org/web/20250312235011/https://www.tempecommunitycouncil.org/b-b-moeur-residence/.

The Governor Benjamin Baker Moeur House – Narrative. City of Tempe Historic Preservation Office Files.

“Educational Day In Convention.” The Arizona Republic. November 23, 1910.