And the Rest Is History…
And the Rest Is History…
The beginning of a new year is generally about looking forward. And our fantastic C&C team has hit the ground running in 2020, investigating the latest trends in everything from interior design and artwork to construction and landscaping to keep our vision fresh and the creative juices flowing. But as
future-minded as we are as business owners, Victoria and I are actually big fans of looking back. As in way back.
Translation: we are avid history geeks.
We have been fortunate to have visited – and lived in – places all around the globe, and we absolutely love finding out as many facts and anecdotes as we can about each area. So, as we were winding down 2019, we managed to carve out time to wade through a quite substantial pile of books on local history. Given our crazy schedules, getting in our daily dose of Arizona schooling often involved some impromptu multi-tasking. Visualise the following, if you will…
I am running about the house, gathering drawings, budgets, samples and other assorted materials for a client meeting that is a good half-hour across town. My arms loaded, car keys in hand, I call out to Victoria, who is nose-deep in a book about the origins of our fair city, Scottsdale.
“C’mon, love. We’ve got a meeting clear across town. Let’s get a move on!”
“Did you know that Scottsdale was first named ‘Orangedale’ when it was originally settled in the late 1880s?”
“Ah…no I didn’t. Fascinating, though. Can we please—”
“It became Scottsdale in 1894, named after a minister and military officer called Winfield Scott. Can you believe he purchased what we now know as Old Town Scottsdale for three dollars and fifty cents back then?!”
As you might have gathered by now, my lovely wife can get quite locked into the specifics of something she is passionate about. In fact, her massive attention to detail often makes her more feared than myself on job sites. But I digress…
“So, old Winfield was a brilliant bargain hunter. Good for him. Now let’s go.”
Victoria nodded in my general direction, got up off the couch and followed me to the car…all without taking her eyes from the book. As we careened down the 101, my education continued as she read out historical factoids from the passenger seat. By the time we got to our destination, I had learned a whole host of tidbits, including the fact that the Scottsdale Airport was once a training ground for World War II pilots, and Scottsdale’s oldest building is a Victorian era home (“Titus House”) built in 1892 for a wealthy railroad investor.
If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that we like to share our personal journeys as well as our professional know-how. So, being that this year has started off with us immersed in our desire to learn more about our adopted homeland, chances are good that we’ll be sharing our findings and fascinations with all of you (right along with the latest and greatest developments in the world of construction and remodeling). So…stay tuned! You just may learn something new about the formative years of our desert paradise.