HISTORY
Historic rest stop The Maricopa Hotel was owned and operated by Arthur Deal (pictured with his son) from 1917 to 1931. It sat on a plot of land adjacent to West Mercado Street and North John Wayne Parkway, just across from the Amtrak station sits today. It was called Edwards Hotel in the 1890s and McCarthy House in the 1900s. The hotel burned down in 1931. After the fire, the old hotel’s foundation was repurposed for several businesses — a small grocery store, blacksmith shop and NAPA Auto Parts. NAPA Auto Parts was demolished in 2020, the year after the John Wayne Parkway overpass opened.
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5 years ago 10 years ago
A home improvement store expected to open in 2024 put its plans on hold. Home Depot, which first got the city council’s approval in 2008, announced it was indefinitely suspending plans to open in Maricopa in February 2009. "We are still interested in opening this store and serving the Maricopa community, but the current state of the economy has delayed our plans," said Kathryn Gallagher, a Home Depot spokesperson at the time. Neither Home Depot representatives nor the president of Shea Properties would offer a possible starting date for the store's construction. Turns out, it would be a decade and a half later. 15 years ago
Heavy rain caused a scare at a municipal dam Feb. 22, 2019. A 30-foot-wide piece of the spillway dam at Province, adjacent to the Santa Rosa Wash near West Smith Enke Road, washed away after more than an inch of rain overflowed the community lake. “We had a larger storm than we would expect to see. The lake is designed to overflow the top in that location,” said Dan Frank, then-president of the Maricopa Flood Control District. Crews lowered the water level to make repairs. According to Frank, there was a concern about losing the entire spillway.
Tempe resident Mark Knight, owner of the hang-gliding tourism company Sonora Wings, crashed his aircraft at Ak-Chin Regional Airport Feb. 23, 2014. Paul Olson, an employee at that company, said Knight was about 300 feet above the ground flying a Sabrena Dragonfly aircraft and heading northwest over the airport when the plane’s “nose pointed up.” He lost control and spiraled to the ground. “He was just flying for fun,” Olson said. Knight survived.
InMaricopa.com | February 2024
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