HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE
WPA-Era Structures in Moeur Park, North and South

BACKGROUND

This nomination was submitted by the Historic Preservation Office at the request of the Historic Preservation Commission for historic designation of the WPA-Era Structures in Moeur Park North and South and listing in the Tempe Historic Property Register.  A public hearing was held September 2, 1999, and Tempe HPC voted 6/0 to recommend approval of the designation and listing.  A public hearing was held on October 12, 1999, and the Planning & Zoning Commission voted 7/0 to recommend approval of the designation and listing.  Finally, two public hearings at Tempe City Council and on November 4, 1999, Council unanimously approved designation and listing of the WPA-Era Structures in Moeur Park North and South in the Tempe Historic Property Register. 

Moeur Park North and South is located at the NE and SE corners of Mill Avenue and Curry Road.  Moeur Park ramadas and associated structures are identified in the 1997 Tempe Multiple Resource Area Update (#255) as individually eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.  Built in U.S. Park Services style, these roadway, rest, and landscape elements are typical of the New Deal Works Projects Administration Era (WPA).  Field stone and concrete materials were used by the WPA to construct features throughout the park.  These include; raised planters, stairs, planter borders, stone benches, stone tables, an automobile bridge, retaining walls, and irrigation boxes. 

Moeur Park is significant for its association with Works Projects Administration construction projects.  The park began as an automobile rest stop for motorists, established by the Arizona Highway Department for travelers on State Highway 93 (US 60 and 89).  Construction began in 1930 and the project bears the WPA stamp “W.P.A. Project 652, 1936” at the stone and concrete bridge over the Salt River Project drainage easement in the northern portion of the park.

In 1949, a bronze plaque in memory of Mrs. Honor Anderson Moeur, wife of Governor Benjamin Baker Moeur (Tempe’s first governor), was placed in the park in recognition of her work toward roadside beautification and this park in particular. 

SUMMARY

The WPA-Era Structures in Moeur Park, North and South meet the eligibility criteria specitfied in Section 14A-4 of the Tempe City Code (Historic Preservation Ordinance), under Criteria 1, 2a, and 2b.  The structures meet the criteria for listing in the Arizona or National Register of Historic Places (Criterion 1).  The structures are at least fifty years old, reflective of the city’s cultural and social past; and are associated with persons significant in local and state history (Governor and Mrs. B. B. Moeur) satisfying Criterion 2a.  Under Criterion 2b, Moeur Park North and South represents and established and familiar visible feature of an area of the city, due to its prominent location at the heavily travelled intersection of Mill Avenue and Curry Road.

Only those areas of Moeur Park, North and South where the actual WPA-Era Structures or features occur have been designated historic and listed in the Tempe Historic Property Register by this action.