[Source: Lindsay Butler, East Valley Tribune] -- Plans to restore the home of Mesa’s first black doctor have reawakened after being dormant for months. The Alston House, at the corner of Fifth Street and Pima near Washington Park, was built in the 1920s and was home to Dr. Lucius Alston who used it to treat patients from the community. The house has particular significance to the black and Hispanic communities in Mesa, and it will house offices for the Mesa Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee and the Mesa Association of Hispanic Citizens. “It’s going to help us out tremendously to have a place to meet, something stable we can call our own,” said Everette Woods, MLK committee vice president. “And it will be a place for the community to look out and say, ‘This is ours.’ ” Mesa’s Historic Preservation Office has been working on restoring the house for years, but the progress slowed this summer when preservation officer Stephanie Bruning took a job out of state.[Note: To read the full article, click here. Photo source: Lisa Olson, East Valley Tribune.]
