As I mentioned last week, my month-long vacation is over, and it’s time to get back to writing about our Fountain Hills History Lesson.
We left off with the end of 1973. The Village Bazaar shopping center opened at Fountain Park in time for holiday shoppers to do some last-minute buying on a local basis.
The shopping center was where the Plaza Fountainside center is now located. Included among the shops were Rainbow Gift House, featuring Hallmark greeting cards, party goods and candles and owned by Larry Ringsrud; Mr. G’s Accents, offering a complete line of decorator items including wall plaques, pottery, imported paintings and owned by Bill and Lois Grate; Fountain Fashions I, a ladies fashion boutique owned by Kay Kinder; and Leisure Crafts, owned by Martin and Alma J. Haemmerle, featuring hobbies and crafts.
Also, Turquoise Tepee, featuring authentic hand-crafted Indian jewelry, owned by Corky and Joan Tomlin; Casa de las Leones, a Mexican and South American import gift shop, owned by Faye Farrow and Cretia Boyd; Casa Verde Del Camino, a flower and indoor plant boutique owned by Pat Riding; and the Fountain Kone Emporium & Candy Shop, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor owned by Bob and Kathleen Williams.
The first golfers teed off at the Fountain Hills golf course on Dec. 15, 1973. Johnny Allen was named head golf pro and greens fees were $3 for nine holes and $5 for 18.
Two businesses opened in December 1973 that remained open for many years in the community. Paul’s Hardware is still open in the Bashas’ Center and operating under the Ace affiliation. It originally opened in a gray slump block building on Saguaro Boulevard that housed Champions Fitness Center for many years and is now home to McDowell Mountain Bikes.
McDowell Mountain Printing, Stationery and Office Supplies (later called Gridleys) originally opened in a building on Saguaro Boulevard that now contains The Alamo saloon. Gridleys later moved to a store on the Avenue of the Fountains.
The Fountain Hills Model Home Information Center opened in January and served as a starting point for the community’s Model Home Tour. The tour gave visitors a chance to see displays of 24 different homes built by 15 different builders. The tour was 12 miles long.
Fountain Hills Liquor Store was opened by John Ehrsam in a Spanish-style building on Verde River Drive in January. The building was later sold and used as a beauty salon. A frequently asked question about the building after the conversion was, “Why does a beauty salon have a drive-through window?”
Ground was broken on Fountain Hills’ first escrow and title office that February. The 1,200-square-foot building was built for Lawyers Title of Arizona on the Avenue of the Fountains.
The first major rental complex in the community, La Casa Cafetal, opened its first 14 units in March 1974. It is located on the northwest corner of the intersection of La Montana Drive and Saguaro Boulevard. I’ve always liked this complex built by Joe and Marge Brown. It still looks as modern as the day it was built.
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I’m also going to add a bit of information about some of the sights we encounter on our drive from Las Vegas to Fountain Hills.
The Wikieup Trading Post and Restaurant has been a stopping point for travelers to Las Vegas since it was halfway from the Phoenix area.
The old west storefront was convenient on that drive. The main building in the complex was destroyed in a fire that started at about 10 p.m. Sunday, May 23, 2021. It took the Pinion Pine fire trucks approximately an hour to arrive at the fire after the call came in.
The Pinion Pine Fire District has only three members and they said it wasn’t worth losing the lives of the three firemen to send them into the burning building. There was also an issue with a lack of water. The fire apparently started in the kitchen of the restaurant.
I’m going to miss this place, since I had purchased four winning scratch-off lottery tickets there in the past couple of years, and they always had clean restrooms.
