I just finished uploading this Single Family, 724 W. Main Street, Mesa AZ

The house at 724 W. Main St. Mesa, AZ, is an Arts & Crafts/Craftsman Bungalow house, a style dominant between 1905 and the early 1920’s.

The 724 West Main Street residence was built in 1916, and according to an oral history from the previous owner was one of four houses in a row, all alike on 80 x 300 ft lots, of these houses 724 West Main Street is the only one left, in an area that is now zones commercial C-3, with businesses on either side.

There is another very similar house in Mesa at 606 N. Robson, the plan is almost exactly the same, only reverses, and is listed in the “Arizona State Historic Property Inventory”.

724 has had three owners since it was built in 1916.

This Craftsman Bungalow is an early, complex and generously scaled example of the side-gabled mode of the craftsman bungalow style, with a compound floor plan with projections from the principal mass less that room sized (containing built-ins).

Both symmetrical and a-symmetrical front facade plans were used with wide open eave overhangs, and exposed rafters, large central dormer with four double hung windows in a row, coursed wood shingles, triangular knee braces at the cornice and lattice attic vents.

A symmetrical walkway leads from the side walk though a trellis archway and a gate, 73 feet toward the L-shaped, elevated, inset, porch, with stucco arched openings and solid balustrades, supported by heavy squared piers, with simple craftsman capitals.

The 1st floor is stucco over block, the 2nd floor is stucco over wood frame, and bead board and coursed shingles over wood frame. There is a two story sleeping porch in the rear of the house (now enclosed) with a hipped roof, with multiple double hung windows; the house has a side gabled roof with multiple roof planes of moderate pitch.

The narrow band of wood siding divides the 1st and 2nd floors above the sides under the gables, the two chimney’s on the roof are surmounted by the same craftsman capitals as the porch piers, a projection onto the porch contains a built-in off the dining room with a yellow and green stained glass, like wise the bathroom on the west side has a projections containing a built in with two small square windows on either side of a large interior mirror.

All structural beams and decorative molding is believed to be redwood including the floors, oak floors seem to have been added though out much of the house early on, like wise a small bathroom was added to the upstairs in the 40’s bumping out the roof-line in the NW corner, the original upstairs bathroom became a bedroom.

The first story of the house contains a living room with French doors, a large brick fireplace, built in bookshelves, and a main entry door with smaller beveled glass doors on either side, adjoining the living room is the dining room with large windows looking on to the porch and entry door and built in china cabinet with stained glass (the built-in china cabinet and bookshelves in the living room may have had leaded beveled glass doors as late as the 30’s), there is a swinging door off the dining room leading into the gallery kitchen with original cabinets, sink, and white hex tiled counter-tops with green tile trim.

Based on the colors in the stained glass, kitchen tile and the house itself, as well as research on the craftsman style the owner restored the color scheme of the house with a largely yellow, green and white theme, the living room harkens back to more of a Victorian style with heavily flowered wallpaper, although most of the woodwork would have been natural redwood originally, it was decided to go with a dark green as opposed to stripping and refinishing.

From the kitchen one enters the “summer kitchen” with numerous windows which contains another sink, a stairway upstairs and a doorway to the one room basement below. Around the corner from the stairs is a bedroom with doors that adjoin the living room and the bathroom with its large built in the bath room adjoins a (honey moon suite or home office that has French doors adjoining the living room and a separate door onto the front porch as well as a large set of windows looking out onto the park like front yard.

The upstairs has three bedrooms and bathroom, sleeping porch and a small hall, the bedroom in the front dormer has tall narrow built-in bookshelves on either side of a row of four windows and a window seat.

The 724 West Main Street Residence is significant for its relatively undisturbed reflection of the Craftsman architectural style and its relatively scarcity in our region having had only three owners, it has sustained little permanent alteration and the property the house is built on has remained much the same as well.

Being located in an area now zoned C3 light industrial with business on either side, this house presents a unique opportunity to the new owner. Located in the downtown re-development area of the City of Mesa and nearby the future path of the light rail, converting this grandfathered single family home to “mix-use” or commercial would be its highest and best use.

Although it may be converted to commercial use at some point, we hope it will be done with its historical value in mind and that the House will be preserved.