Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation System, Building No. 20 (House), 30612 Wellton-Mohawk Drive, Wellton

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

Wellton-Mohawk Drive, Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District (WMIDD) administrative complex, Wellton, Yuma County, Arizona. Building 20 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 1h 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-Y. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Building 20, as part of the former Wellton Government Camp, is associated with the Wellton-Mohawk Division of the Gila Project. Construction of the Wellton- 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 irrigation tem, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) built Wellton Government Camp to provide office space and housing for em- ployees 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 com- plex is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as a district under Criteria a and c (Thompson and Sterner The residential build- ings have retained their integrity and contribute to the significance of the head- quarters complex. Report Prepared by: Scott Thompson, Senior Historian Statistical Research, Inc. Tucson, Arizona Date: September Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation System, Building 20 (House) HAER No. AZ-68-Y (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 20 (six-room residence, Type 6B) is a one-story, ranch-style, wood-frame house with a shingled, side-gabled roof; stucco exterior; steel-sash casement windows; and a concrete-slab foundation. There is no basement. The overall dimensions are x with a wing on the north (rear) facade that measures x The wing has an end-gabled roof. All of the gable ends are covered with horizontal wood siding and incorporate a louvered air vent. The interior space is approximately square feet. The south (front) facade has an off-center entrance with a concrete sill covered by a simple porch hood. A multipane, metal-sash, casement picture window at the west comer wraps around to the west facade. There are 14 multipane, metal-sash casement windows in use on the building's facades.

The north (rear) facade has an off-center entrance with a concrete sill leading into a 120-square-foot utility room that extends from the primary building mass. As originally constructed, the east gable end had ductwork for receiving an elevated evaporative-cooling unit. The evaporative cooler has since been replaced by a ground-mounted air-conditioning unit. A grounded television antenna is attached to the front porch covering. The front entrance is covered by a metal-frame screen door. Building 20 has a porch addition on the northeast facade consisting of a concrete pad and a porch covering supported by six wood columns. The porch covering has a low pitch and is covered with roll-roofing material.

The concrete pad and shed roof cover a larger area than the porch additions on Buildings 1-5 and 22. On December 30, the H. P. Adams Construction Company was awarded a contract for remodeling some of the buildings at the camp (Pfaff The contractor may have constructed the porch addition under this contract. Six rooms make up the Type 6B residence: a living room, a dining room, three bedrooms, and a utility room. In addition, there is a kitchen and bath. The building has approximately square feet of living space. Documentation for this report did not include visual inspection of the building's interior.

Plan drawings for the permanent house, Type 6B, indicate the kitchen and bathroom floors were covered with asphalt tile and that the remaining interior floor surfaces consisted of finished concrete (Reclamation The interior ceilings and walls were plastered. Construction costs for this house were (Pfaff The current condition of the building's exterior is fair to good. Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation System, Building 20 (House) HAER No. AZ-68-Y (page 3) III. REFERENCES CITED Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) Wellton Government Camp, six-room residence Type 6B. 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.