Jo and I took a guided tour of this mansion near downtown Flagstaff Friday afternoon.
The mansion was built in 1904 for two Riordan brothers of Flagstaff, Timothy and Michael. They started in the lumber business, beginning with cutting ponderosa pines on their land, hauling the logs to Flagstaff by their railroads and milling to produce the lumber As they prospered, they went onto other businesses in the area and became prominent community leaders, with the Babbit family.
The mansion design was in the Arts and Crafts style of the era, which emphasized using local materials. The architect also designed the El Tovar hotel on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The mansion has 40 rooms covering 13,000 square feet. in two stories. Northern Arizona State University campus is on the Riordan land originally devoted to the mansion and lumber mills.
The design is unique by having separate residences at both ends of the buildings with a common one story room in the middle for socializing between members of the two families. It was built with indoor plumbing, hot and cold running water and electric lighting.
Here is the front of the mansion. Timothy’s part is on the left and Michael’s part is at the right, with the common area between.
Jo is standing at the back of the mansion. The visitors center is in the garage/carriage house at the rear. When it was built it was not known if automobiles would replace horses and buggies for personal transportation so the architect designed it to accommodate both.
This is Michael’s end, where the guided tour ends.
I just had to be in a picture there!
This is the end of Timothy’s part, where the guided tours begin. Photos are not permitted inside in that end. The furniture in this part is largely original to one side or the other of the mansion. Ownership went directly from members of the Riordan family to the state or other agency for use as a museum. Many other historic mansions were converted to apartments before they became museums, with a loss of millwork, fixtures and furniture.
Michael‘s end is devoted to libraries and displays.
As a rail fan, I could not resist this shot of one of the Riordan trains hauling logs to the mill.
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