Julia Taggart sort of stumbled into her gig as a historian.
“I was doing a college documentary on Paradise Valley Mall,” Taggart told me, when I dropped in on her at the Sunnyslope Historical Society and Museum. “The mall was closing down, and I wanted to document the art there – the carousel and the stained glass and the Jim Branscum statue out front.”
As a result of her research, the carousel was preserved and Branscum’s bronze sculpture, “The Three Graces,” was set aside to be used in a new development project. “That kind of snowballed into me learning more about historic preservation and how to save local landmarks.”
Her success in getting historic designation for local sites – the old KPHO TV studio and Sunnyslope’s kitschy Rock Garden among them – led to her appointment as president of Sunnyslope Historical Society and Museum last year.
It’s a good fit, she promised me. “I grew up on the other side of Sunnyslope Mountain. I love research and investigating old buildings and hearing people’s stories about living here, where their grandmother shopped, all of it.”
Founded in 1911 by architect William R. Norton, Sunnyslope was named by Norton’s daughter, who remarked about the “sunny slope” of the North Mountain foothills. The neighborhood was first settled in the late 19th century as a sort of tent city where people came from all over to recover from tuberculosis in the dry desert climate. Developers arrived in the 1940s and Sunnyslope, home to about 40,000 residents who live just north of the Arizona Canal, was annexed into the City of Phoenix in 1959.
Taggart and I chuckled about how Sunnyslope was long a punchline to a local joke about where not to live.
“It sometimes still is,” Taggart confided. “There’s a guy doing YouTube videos about ‘Sunnyscum.’ Other people tell me, ‘It’s so sketchy there!’ But more people are coming around to how Sunnyslope is a beautiful place to live.”
I told her I thought some of that was due to her relentless activism on behalf of her childhood ’hood. She didn’t disagree.
“God forbid I die one day,” she said. “I hope I don’t, because what’s going to happen to all these historic buildings I’m trying to save?”
While she’s still alive, Taggart plans to continue with the Sunnyslope boosterism.
“We had a guy come in today,” she said. “He was visiting from California, and he wanted to know what Sunnyslope was. I sent him to the rock garden, and I told him about the new candy shop and how they’re planning to put in a soda fountain. I said he had to go to Books on Seventh, because they have a new cat named Dorian Gray.”
She looked around the museum, taking in her latest displays: a band uniform from Legend City; a glass-cased history of local television; a portrait of Ladmo.
“It’s never a dull moment around here,” Taggart sighed. “There’s always something.”
Read It: Jade’s Broken Bridge
After publishing a few books of poetry and two novellas, Chandler poet Michele Lee Sefton makes her full-length novel debut with Jade’s Broken Bridge (Tumbleweed Spirit Press, $16.95). The semi-autobiographical story centers on Jade, a young woman struggling to figure out her identity and direction in the wake of a traumatic childhood and financial straits. The narrative is set in the late 1980s in Phoenix and in Fairbanks, Alaska – locales whose contrasts make for captivating backdrops as Jade works as a topless dancer and grapples with substance use and self-destructive behavior. At times harrowing, it’s ultimately a cathartic coming-of-age story that celebrates resilience and transformation. Learn more and purchase a copy at msefton.com.
– Leah LeMoine
