Welcome to the Mesa Historical Society and Museum.  I am Dilworth Brinton Jr, Mesa’s second best historian.  Gerry Paulus has ask me to fill a few minutes while you finish eating.  
The Mesa Historical Society was founded in the mid 1960’s by Dilworth C. Brinton and Mitz Zipf.  Dilworth was the Citizen of the year in 1954 and he was President of the Mesa Rotary Club in 1956-1957.  Mitz and her husband Walter owned the Sun Valley Spur, a weekly newspaper and advertising paper.  It was mostly full of local Mesa articles and advertising until it was purchased by the Mesa Tribune.  

 

In the mid 1960’s several people felt that Mesa should have a group (historical society) to start recording, both in writing and with photographs and film for the important events in Mesa.  In 1976 after the city constructed a new city hall, the old city hall was turned into a museum.  Trey Mead was the city employee hired as historian and keeper of records.  He was helped for some years by volunteers from the Mesa Historical Society.  He was also helped with the Mesa Archological Society.  There were mostly in the materials found in Mesa from the Ho Ho Kam Indians that lived here from about 50 b.c. to about 1200 to 1400 a.d.  It was headed by an archologist who was a city employee.  Eventually the city pushed the Historical Society out and turned the old city hall over to the archologist who expanded the space to include Indian things other than Mesa history.  With no home and only a promise from the city the Historical society struggled on.  The Crismon family took the museum under their support.  Virgil and his son Charlie were mostly responsible for the museum and society to continue.  (Virgil and Charlie were both Rotarians.) 

Lehi was founded the year before Mesa in 1876 by a group of LDS pioneers headed by Daniel W. Jones and Henry C. Rogers.  This corner was donated to the community by Henry C. Rogers for the ‘educational purposes of a school.’  There was an adobe and brush bower for the first school.  This was twice washed away by the Salt River in floods.  In 1913 a brick building was constructed (at the north of the complex) and the building, constructed in 1917, is now the museum entrance.  In 1932 the auditorium and additional class rooms were constructed.  In 1976, as a Bicentennial project a replica of the first adobe school, built in Mesa, was constructed in front of the old city hall (now a museum).  When the Natural History was expanded in 1991 (and the Historical Society pushed out) the adobe building was torn down by the city.  

 

The museum was homeless several years until they were allowed to move into the Lehi school building by the city.  The public school had a school on this site.  They wanted to expand and modernize the school.  Since some of the building was ‘historic’ they could not tear it down.  They also discovered that they did not own the land under their buildings.  They managed to get the city of Mesa to trade the school (and land they didn’t own) for some empty land.  The school district built a new school on the land.  They city decided that they would sell the land, but discovered the problem with the title.  They came to me to help them trace and track ‘down the decedents of Henry C. Rogers to get permission to change the title so it could be sold.

The end of the story is that they couldn’t.  So they owned a building and permission to have a school but not the land.  They rented out the ‘back lot’ to a charter school and moved the museum into the old buildings.  But the Museum had to keep the buildings up.  (This has turned out to be a bit of a white elephant.)

 

In 2001 the adobe schoolhouse was reconstructed in front of the current museum building in Lehi.  They got enough money to hire an permanent staff and expand the museum.  Recently they decided to start a spring training baseball museum.  Unfortunately when they started (re)construction they found that one of the main beams in the auditorium had to be replaced.
This raised the cost of the repair and reconstruction.  (see white elephant)

Currently the museum is trying to raise the balance of the money then need (about $150,000).  They are willing to accept donations.  They also are selling bricks for the front area at the museum.  On your table is the handout for purchasing bricks.  You can be remembered (or your family remembered) or have the name of your business by purchasing a brick.