[Source: Dan Durrenberger, Arizona Republic] -- My Dec. 23 column ("Pyle's rundown home should be bulldozed") began innocently enough. "What's made of sticks and stucco and looks like a dump? Tempe's 'Governor Howard Pyle' house. "Located at 1120 South Ash Ave. near downtown Tempe, the ranch-style home, built in 1940, sits amid dead weeds, its broken windows covered with cheap plywood. It's a junk pile of a building. Pyle owned the property in 1948, some 57 years ago."As you might imagine, the column was not well received by local historical preservationists. Among them is a fellow named Bob Gasser. He's the chairman of the Tempe Historic Preservation Commission. One sentence in the column, in particular, caught his attention. It read, "Other than its oh-so-brief and tenuous tie to Gov. Pyle, the home is of no historical significance." Understandably, those words didn't sit well.
Gasser begins his missive by stating, "Once again, your thought-provoking articles in The Arizona Republic raised interest within the historic preservation community. Let me start by saying that I have always appreciated people taking the devil's advocate position; I tend to play that role myself. We need to hear the opinions of others that differ from our own in order to gain a better understanding of issues and maintain a balanced perspective. Your article regarding Gov. Pyle's house provided a great deal of information about the significance of the individual. I learned much about the man from your article and have a greater appreciation of his role in Arizona's history."
Get ready, folks. Here comes the velvet hammer. Gasser writes on: "I asked John Akers, curator of history at the Tempe Historical Museum, if he could provide some information about Gov. Pyle's connection to this house -- if the association with that individual was indeed brief and tenuous, you may have made a good point."
[Note: To read the full article, click here. Photo source: City of Tempe.]
