Rosson House Museum

This 2,800 square foot beautiful Eastlake architectural style Victorian home built in 1895 features ten rooms and five fireplaces. View what life was like for Rosson House residents of Block 14, owners and tenants both, in early Phoenix during Arizona’s late territorial times all in its original location. Docent guided tours are held on the half hour and last approx. 30 minutes. Open: Wednesday-Saturday (10am-4pm) and Sunday (Noon-4pm). Admission: $7.50 adults, $6 seniors, students & military, $4 children 6-12 years old, Free 5 years old & under. Last tour on each day starts at 3:30pm. Closed Easter Sunday. Ticket Office 602.262.5070. To schedule a group or school tour please call 602.261.8948 or Click Here! to email. For recorded park information please call 602.262.5029. Click Here! for park and museum maps. • Your Rosson House tour admission also includes admission into the Hands-on-Heritage House.

Need a gift for that special someone or just a fun souvenir? Visit the Rosson House Museum’s gift shop. The Heritage Square Emporium provides unique gift buying opportunities for park guests along with soft drinks and packaged snacks. Conveniently located in the Rosson House Ticket Office. Also, click here for our online Keepsakes Page.

• Remember your Rosson House tickets & Heritage Square Emporium purchases help support the ongoing activities, events, docent programs and more of the Rosson House - Heritage Square Foundation (a 501c3 non-profit organization) of the Rosson House Museum. 

Myth Busters: True or False?

Houses didn’t have closets in 1895 because there was a tax on them.

False! This myth may have originated during colonial time when colonists were taxed by the British crown for the number of rooms they had but according to Stuff and Nonsense from the Colonial Williamsburg Winter 2008 publication, “Taxes varied colony to colony, but research has turned up no examples of a tax on closets in any of the thirteen colonies that broke with Britain in 1776.” In Details for Docents, by Kathy McKoy in April of 1987, she wrote that “historic architects we’ve consulted said that closets were not noteworthy in Phoenix. Some houses had them, some didn’t.” -research provided by Ginger Worden

Christmas was not a leagal holiday until 1890 so in many businesses and homes it was just another work day.

True! Prior to 1890 in the United States the celebration of Christmas was very localized and depended upon one’s religious background or national origin. One autor said, “Christmas was celebrated wherever there were Lutheran, Reformed, Moravian, Episcopal, or Catholic congregations. To the Puritans, which inluded Methodists, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, and Plain People (Mennonite, Brethren, and Amish) it was just another day...” Sometimes a fine was imposed if you were found feasting on Christmas Day. -research provided by Jane Baxter

The sad irons are named so because they are so heavy that you are sad when you have to use them.

False! The name comes from an obsolete meaning of the word sad: heavy, dense, compact. The irons on display at the Rosson House are the wonderful Mrs. Potts’ Cold Handle Iron invented by Mary Florence Potts of Ottumwa Iowa in 1870. They were a great hit in the Women’s Pavilion of the 1876 Centennial World’s Fair and were best sellers unitl the 1900s. -research provided by Kathy McKoy and Ginger Worden

The wallpaper in the north bedroom is actual antique wallpaper found in an abandoned drugstore in Brillion, Wisconsin.

Partially True! At least the patterned frieze paper along the top of the wall. In 1976 Elliot Zander discovered 4,500 rolls of Victorian wallpaper in a small lean-to tacked onto a storage shed of an abandoned drugstore in Brillion, Wisconsin. there were about 1,300 different patterns and many of them had suffered the ravages of time. He couldn’t find much interest in this collection among antique dealers so he sold the wallpaper to Sharron and Fred Jahnke of Cedarburg, Wisconsin for $.10/roll. They then made it available to museums, historians, preservations, and decorators. The oatmeal paper on the lower portion of the wall is, however, English and antique purchased from Waterhouse Wallhanger in Boston. -research provided by Kathy McKoy

Coal or wood were the only methods for cooking in 1895.

False! An English inventor, James Sharp, patented a gas stove in 1826 but the use was only isolated experiments. In the 1880s the technology started to become a commercial success. The main factor in the delay was the slow growth of gas pipe network. The Electric Stove was invented in 1896 so the Rossons, having only lived in the house for two years, were too early to take advantage of this marvel.

Even though the box that holds food in the kitchen is cooled with a block of ice, it is a refrigerator.

True! This is one of the most common points of controversy when visitors stand in the kitchen of the Rosson House. According to the 1895 Montgomery Ward & Co.’s Catalogue No. 57, p. 417, it is in fact named the Dry Cold Air Refrigerator with Metallic Ice Rack. The refrigerators came in various styles including the single door, double door, or sideboard style. They ranged in price from $7.26 to $21.34 and they were “... guaranteed to not sweat, unlike the hardwood ice chests”, which of course we often refer to as ice boxes.

The closest train station in 1895 was in Maricopa so that goods had to be brought 40 miles by Mule drawn wagon into Phoenix.

False! The first train from Maricopa to Phoenix arrived July 4, 1887 thus allowing a fast outlet for crops and the importation of merchandise such as all the mail order items in the Rosson House. -research provided by Kathy McKoy and Vicki Beaver