Photo by Nicole Roegner Members of Boy Scout Troop 7 plant saguaros donated by Richard Stokes at the Eisendrath House.

Rose Eisendrath built her home near Papago Park as a haven for tolerance. Today, Tempe officials are raising $3.2 million to save it.

One look at the Eisendrath House – two stories of pinkish adobe perched alone (and a bit weary) on a desert hill – and you just know it’s got a great tale to tell.

Rose Eisendrath built the place in 1930 after she was turned away from a Valley inn because of her Jewish faith. The house served as a welcoming winter retreat and even a guest lodge for A-listers, but above all it was a monument to tolerance. And with the home’s pueblo-style architecture, adobe walls and cactus-studded grounds, the property also made a statement about harmonious desert living.

Some 80 years later, Tempe’s Eisendrath House is badly damaged in some areas and shows signs of neglect. But if city officials and preservationists have their way, the home will be brought back to life with a new purpose they hope will also endure.

The Eisendrath House will undergo a $3.2 million makeover to transform it into a water conservation center and what officials hope will be the state’s first historic LEED-certified building (a designation earned for sustainable or “green” building). The home will be used for city offices and community meeting space.

These are ambitious plans, for sure, but the timing couldn’t be better. The home sits in Papago Park near a collection of historic, cultural and natural treasures at College Avenue and Curry Road. The former home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was recently relocated from Paradise Valley to the park, which has put a national spotlight on the area as supporters turn it into a gathering place.

The backstory makes the case for restoration even more compelling. Rose Eisendrath was a wealthy Chicagoan – her late husband made his fortune in the glove-manufacturing business – who enjoyed the mild winters of Arizona.

Eisendrath made a visit to Arizona in 1929 and was told she couldn’t stay at a local inn (which is no longer around) because of her Jewish faith, according to city records. She resolved to build her own winter retreat and found a 40-acre hillside parcel that overlooked the Salt River.

She hired architect Robert Evans, known as a master of adobe architecture for his work on famed projects like the renovation of La Casa Vieja in Tempe (now Monti’s La Casa Vieja restaurant). Eisendrath opened the home in 1931 and called it “Lomaki,” a Hopi term that can mean pretty, good or good health.

The two-story home had all the amenities a family with means would require: master bedroom suites, a library, sewing room, sun deck, two-car garage and servants’ quarters. Numerous windows and three French doors along a hallway bathed the home in sunlight and offered natural ventilation.

With its sweeping mountain views, outdoor living was a must at Lomaki. The grounds included a courtyard with a tiled fountain and a grassy area with a swimming pool. The rest of the property was raw desert.

Eisendrath spent five winters in Arizona, and when she was away she opened Lomaki to visitors, including Hollywood star Bette Davis, according to city records.

In 1936, Eisendrath planned a special dinner and invited the owner of the inn who had once turned her away. City records note that during the evening, “when the inn owner drifted toward a belated apology for her actions years earlier, Mrs. Eisendrath told her to ‘forget it.’ Her point being made, she no longer carried a grudge.”

Photo courtesy of the City of Tempe The Eisendrath family

That same year, Eisendrath, who had been ill, died of a stroke at Lomaki at age 66. In the decades that followed, the property changed hands several times. The land was subdivided for development, and what remained – the house and nine acres – was targeted for a new tennis resort that never came to pass. The house itself underwent a few remodels, operated as an art gallery and, according to three different guests, was haunted by a “friendly” ghost.

By 1999, the Eisendrath House landed on the Arizona Preservation Foundation’s “endangered property” list. With a long-time renter leaving and the property’s location being prime for redevelopment, the home’s fate was very uncertain, recalls Tempe city architect Mark Vinson, who was a foundation board member at the time.    

Then Tempe came to the rescue. In late 2001, the city swapped about five acres of land near Priest Drive and Rio Salado Parkway for the Eisendrath House and its remaining nine acres. Now the city is preparing to renovate the property.

The Rio Salado Foundation has raised $2.4 million in cash and pledges for the project and is seeking roughly $1 million more. The first phase, which involves structural repairs to the exterior, could start by late summer or early fall, says lead architect Bob Graham, of Motley Design Group.

After that, plans call for undoing past remodeling work, such as getting rid of dropped ceilings or possibly restoring a second-story veranda that was enclosed. There’s also extensive work planned to restore log and beam ceilings.

In addition, the city wants to turn the home into the model of energy efficiency and water conservation. As part of that goal, it will unearth an old swimming pool and use it as a cistern to water the grass and plants that are being brought back to complete the historic picture.

Evans, the home’s original architect, was prolific, and much of his work lives on around the Valley. But Graham says restoring this home is crucial. “Of what’s left, this is the best Evans [project] we’ve got and the most untouched,” he says.

The desert around the home is also being restored with 250 new saguaros, a planting project overseen by an Eagle Scout candidate and a local Boy Scout troop. The cactuses were donated by retired engineer Richard Stokes, who had a few thousand growing in containers around his backyard. These are his final 250, and he says he’s pleased “to put more cactus in the world” through the Eisendrath House.

But Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman may be the most outspoken advocate for the project. He’s everywhere: raising money as president of the Rio Salado Foundation, giving media tours and chatting up viewers on YouTube. (In the online video, Hallman calmly discusses the project on camera as bees inhabiting the home buzz around him.)

But this isn’t just political for the mayor; it goes deeper. Hallman grew up not far from the Eisendrath home and vividly recalls exploring the desert area around it. His mother, the late Evelyn Hallman, also was one of a group of women who pushed the city to save the home.

With all the talk of the future, Hallman says he doesn’t want “two powerful messages” from the past to get lost.

“This house is a testament to [Eisendrath’s] character and will,” he says. “This house [also] supplies an example of how you live in the desert without destroying it.”

The Rio Salado Foundation will host an outdoor barbecue at the Eisendrath House on October 22 at 6 p.m. to kick off its fundraising efforts. For more information on the fundraising campaign, visit supportriosalado.org.