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Planning a trip to Arizona … or back in time? Historic images from ASU Libraries may help.
Guests putt at the Castle Hot Springs resort, north of Phoenix, ~1930.
Brothers James and William McCulloch immigrated to Arizona from their native Scotland, and soon began photographing the evolution of their new home. The brothers, who had a photography studio in downtown Phoenix, chronicled much of Arizona’s mines, dams, agriculture and commercial development in the early stages of Phoenix’s urban sprawl.
That amazing collection is now available to historians and fans of the Valley alike. ASU Libraries has made more than 4,500 of the McCulloch’s photographs available through its digital repository.
Here’s a look at some of those images that show hotels, resorts and leisure at the outset of the 20th century.
A view of the Arizona Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, ~1930. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
A band plays the balcony of the Biltmore, ~1930. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
Shuffleboard at Paradise Valley’s Camelback Inn, early 1930s. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
Grounds of the Castle Hot Springs resort, north of Phoenix, around 1930. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
Tennis courts at the Castle Hot Springs resort. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
The lobby of the Luhrs Hotel in downtown Phoenix in 1939. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
A taxi rank outside the Hotel Adams in downtown Phoenix, 1925. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
The lobby of the Hotel Adams. The Adams was originally one of Phoenix’s largest and most expensive buildings. It was destroyed in a fire in 1910 and rebuilt shortly thereafter. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
The Hotel Adams fire. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
The exterior of the Westward Ho Hotel in 1928. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
Looking towards downtown Phoenix, as taken from the Westward Ho Hotel, ~1930. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
A horse corral outside the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, west of Phoenix, circa 1930. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
Guests at the Wigwam Resort. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
A round of golf at Scottsdale’s Ingleside Inn, 1937. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
A guest ranch — also known as a dude ranch — in Wickenburg, AZ, northwest of Phoenix, around 1930. (McCulloch Brothers/ASU Libraries)
Read more about the McCulloch Brothers collection at ASU Now.
