Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation System, Building No. 9 A-B (Duplex), 30681 & 30683 Wellton-Mohawk Drive, Wellton

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER AZ-68-O. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

30681and30683 Wellton-Mohawk Drive, Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District (WMIDD) administrative complex, Wellton, Yuma County, Arizona. Building 9 A-B is 1 of 22 residential buildings arranged in a horseshoe- shaped plan on Wellton-Mohawk Drive, located approximately one-half mile north of Interstate 8. The building lies within the N 1/z of the NE 1/4 of Section 4, Township 9 South, Range 18 West, on the Wellton Mesa, Arizona, 7.5-minute U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangle (photorevised Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates: Zone 11, N E

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER AZ-68-O. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Building 9 A-B, as part of the former Wellton Government Camp, is associated with the Wellton-Mohawk Division of the Gila Project. Construction of the Wel- lton-Mohawk irrigation system began in and was essentially completed in With its completion, Colorado River water was delivered to previously arid lands in the lower Gila River valley. Concomitant to construction of the irri- gation system, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (Rec- lamation) built Well ton Government Camp to provide office space and housing for employees engaged in fieldwork associated with the irrigation project. Today, the headquarters of the WMIDD stand on the site of the camp offices, and the houses serve as residences for WMIDD employees.

The WMIDD administrative complex is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as a dis- trict under Criteria a and c (Thompson and Sterner The residential buildings have retained their integrity and contribute to the significance of the headquarters complex. Report Prepared by: Scott Thompson, Senior Historian Statistical Research, Inc. Tucson, Arizona Date: September Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation System, Building 9 A-B (Duplex) HAER No. AZ-68-0 (page 2)

Physical History

See AZ-68-G for information pertaining to the physical history of the former Wellton Government Camp. II. BUILDING

Description

Building 9 A-B (four-room residence, duplex, Type 4D) is a one-story, wood-frame, rectangular duplex set on a 6"-wide concrete foundation. Concrete piers set inside the foundation and spaced at inter- vals support the floor joists. The building is clad with horizontal wood siding and covered by a shingled, side-gabled roof with exposed rafter ends. The gable ends incorporate louvered vents that move air through the attic space. The north (front) facade is symmetrical, with the two entrances at the center sharing a simple extended porch overhang. The south (rear) facade has two entrances at the center. There are two foundation vents on the east and west facades.

The overall dimensions of the primary building mass are x with a wing on the south (rear) facade that measures x The wing has a low-pitched, shingled roof. A later room addition to Unit A (on the southwest facade) measures x The addition has a low-pitched, shingled roof with exposed rafter ends. Vertical wood siding sheaths the addition. The con- crete-slab foundation extends beyond the addition wall. Hot and cold water faucets protrude from the exterior wall, and there is a clothes dryer vent on the wall. Presumably, the pad supported an outdoor washing machine. The addition is outfitted with a 1/1 aluminum-frame window on the south facade. At one time, the addition was air conditioned, as evidenced by exterior metal ductwork.

Originally, the front porch entry was constructed of wood with simple, square wood posts supporting the porch covering. A stepped, concrete stoop has replaced the wood porch entry, and the support posts have been replaced by thin metal rods set in the concrete stoop. Similarly, the original wood steps on the south (rear) facade have been replaced with concrete steps. On December 30, the Adams Construc- tion Company was awarded a contract for remodeling some of the buildings at the camp (Pfaff The current north (front) and south (rear) porch e~nd the south facade addition may have been construc- ted under this contract. As originally constructed, the duplex was outfitted with two elevated evaporative-cooling units on the east and west facades.

At one time, these units were replaced by ground-mounted air-conditioning units connected to the building by exterior ductwork. At the time this building was evaluated, the air-condi- tioning units and some of the exterior ductwork had been removed. Two heating vents and four plumbing vents extend upward from the roof. Originally, there were 22 6/6 double-hung windows on the building's facades. Currently, there are 18 111 aluminum-frame windows in use on the original building's facades. The original windows on the west facade of the utility room have Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation System, Building 9 A-B (Duplex) HAER No. AZ-68-0 (page 3) been filled in, and the two original windows on the southwest facade are covered by the room addition.

The front entrance to Unit B is covered by a metal security-screen door. The doors on the north and south facades are not original. This duplex was converted in from the barracks building sections moved from Yuma Army Air Field to the Wellton Government Camp site. Yuma Army Air Field was activated in as a training base for aviation cadets. At the end of the war, the base was deactivated, and in Reclamation acquired both real and personal property at the inactive facility for use on its projects. Some of the buildings were used in the construction of the government camp at Wellton (Reclamation 1949a:22-23). Each half of the Type 4D residence has four rooms: a living room, two bedrooms, and a utility room.

In addition, there is a kitchen and bath (Reclamation Unit A has approximately 970 square feet (including the room addition), and Unit B has approximately 850 square feet of living space, for an approximate total of square feet for the building. Documentation for this report did not include visual inspection of the building's interior. Pfaff ( previously described the remodeled, temporary, two-bedroom duplex as having wood floors covered with salvaged linoleum, plasterboard interior walls, new linoleum countertops, Venetian blinds, and an evaporative-cooling system. The cost to move, set up, and convert Building 6 was (Pfaff Currently, Building 9 A-Bis unoccupied; the condition of the building's exterior is fair to poor. III.

REFERENCES CITED Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) 1949a Annual Project History, Gila Project, Yuma, Arizona, Vol. XIV. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Denver. On file, Bureau of Reclamation, Yuma Projects Office, Yuma, Arizona. Wellton Government Camp, temporary residc:nce Type 4D. Drawing U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Yuma, Arizona. Drawing on file, Record Group Project Reports, Box National Archives and Records Administration, Rocky Mountain Region, Denver. Pfaff, Christine U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region: Historic Building Reconnaissance Survey. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Technical Services Center, Denver. Thompson, Scott, and Matthew A.

Sterner Inventory and Documentation of the Irrigation System of the Wellton-Mohawk Division of the Gila Project. Technical Report Statistical Research, Tucson.