Foreman's House
Built sometime around the turn of the 20th century, this house was the last residence to be constructed at Sahuaro Ranch.
Little is known about who lived in the house, but it appears to have been built as a residence for the employees of William Bartlett, the ranch's first owner. It replaced a much older structure that Bartlett called the "Men's Quarters" - a simple one-story adobe building that probably dated from the earliest years of the ranch.
Soon after this house was built, the wood-frame section was added to serve as a kitchen. In later years the house was further modified, converting it from a simple bunkhouse into a dwelling more suitable for the ranch foreman and his family. A bathroom was installed on the first floor, the porch was enclosed, and a carport was attached to the north wall of the addition.
On the Ranch Today
More than any other building at Sahuaro Ranch, this house has undergone major changes to restore it to its original appearance. In the 1980s, the carport was removed, the rear stairway rebuilt, and the enclosed porch replaced with a reproduction of the original two-story open porch.
[Photo captions follow]
[Top left] Dave Brown was the foreman at Sahuaro Ranch in the ealry 1950s. He was one of this building's many residents, but the only one that historians know by name. The old enclosed sleeping porch can be seen behind him. The foreman supervised and assigned tasks to ranch employees. Richard Smith, the last owner of Sahuaro Ranch, described Brown as a "good man with a rope." (Photo courtesy of Richard Smith.
[Bottom left] The City of Glendale restored most of the buildings at Sahuaro Ranch in the 1980s. Workers removed the later additions to the Foreman's House, such as the enclosed porch, and returned the building to its early 1900s appearance. (Photo courtesy of the Glendale, Arizona Historical Society).
Courtesy hmdb.org
