Located south of downtown Phoenix sits a small adobe building where one shouldn’t be. Modern buildings and a parking lot surround the adobe house. A chain-linked fence surrounds the adobe house to keep people out. It is hard to believe, but this is a historical site and the oldest building in Phoenix.
The house has adobe mud bricks and a roof constructed of cottonwood branches. It is typical construction used back around 1870. The adobe house was constructed on a homestead of 160 acres that would later become part of Phoenix by Phillip Duppa.
Phillip Darrell Duppa (October 9, 1832 – January 30, 1892) was born in Kent, England 1832. He had a huge impact on Arizona as a pioneer and creator of settlements and is recognized as one of the founders of Phoenix, Arizona along with his friend Jack Swilling.
Duppa proposed the name Phoenix from the mythical story of rebirth from the ashes. Phoenix sits on the site of ancient Hohokam people that had a canal system dating back to 700-1400 AD.
The Duppa House is the oldest house in phoenix, but not Arizona. The oldest building in Arizona is the Mission San Xavier del Bac, built between 1783 and 1797
The house is preserved by the Arizona Historical Society . You can visit the house in downtown Phoenix at:
115 W Sherman St
Phoenix, AZ 85003
