The Arizona Republic, Nov 7, 2009, by Richard Ruelas:
Her family started a business that sold ice in the desert, a sure way to make a fortune.
But Hattie Mosher's $1 million estate was slowly eaten away by mismanagement and the taxes that came with the city's progress. It left Mosher destitute, walking the streets of downtown Phoenix wearing canvas shoes and fancy ball gowns.
Mosher, who died this week in 1945, lived a reverse fairy-tale life, going from riches to rags. But, at least her rags were nice.
Mosher was a downtown denizen. She owned land near Van Buren Street and Central Avenue and built a never-finished four-story building that came to be known as Mosher's Folly.
Reporters who worked at the nearby building that housed The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette would often see her walking the sidewalks. One, in a 1973 article, described her as "an eccentric old woman in tennis shoes and turn-of-the-century gowns who talked to herself as she foraged through trash bins and garbage cans for scraps of food."
Mosher came from high society.
She was the daughter of a pioneer who established the city's first ice business. According to her 1945 front-page obituary from the Gazette, Mosher was the first woman to own and ride a bicycle in the city, something that shook up residents who weren't ready for a lady to pedal a two-wheeler.
As a youngster, she was a member of Lester Payne's Mandolin and Guitar Club and gave annual concerts.
Mosher became a reporter at the Denver Post and married Charles Mosher, also a newspaper employee. The two separated after having a daughter, Julia. Mosher and Julia lived in Europe for a while, and Mosher studied music at two universities in Germany, the Gazette said.
They came back to the United States, and Julia married and moved to San Francisco. She died in 1918, an occasion people said marked a downward turn in Mosher's mental state.
Mosher started developing the property left to her by her father. It ran from Van Buren to Taylor streets and from Central Avenue to Second Street. She built a dance hall, an office building and an oddly shaped edifice that locals dubbed the "building on stilts." Mosher envisioned it as a luxury hotel; for a while, it was a nightclub with the name Mosher's Folly.
But Phoenix was becoming a booming city. And it wanted taxes to pay for sewers and paved roads. Mosher resisted, looking through law books and city codes to find novel ways to protest paying.
For example, the city wanted to pave one portion of the business district, but Mosher objected "on the grounds that the thickness of the concrete was not enough to withstand heavy traffic."
Bit by bit, her property was sold for unpaid taxes. Mosher ended up living in a partitioned-off area on the first floor of Mosher's Folly. When that building was sold in a tax sale, the new owner arranged a room for Mosher to stay in so she wouldn't be homeless.
Mosher collapsed on the sidewalk outside the U.S. post office on Central Avenue during the last week of October 1945. Doctors discovered an acute intestinal disorder, but could not get her body in good enough condition to perform surgery. She died of malnutrition on Nov. 1, 1945, at age 82.
Nothing remains of the buildings she had on the four-square-block area in downtown Phoenix.
The property now includes the old Republic-Gazette building, Arizona State University's journalism school and One Central Park East, a skyscraper under construction. The bar in the former Ramada Inn on the property was called Hattie Mosher's Restaurant-Pub for a brief time in the 1970s.
Her family started a business that sold ice in the desert, a sure way to make a fortune.
But Hattie Mosher's $1 million estate was slowly eaten away by mismanagement and the taxes that came with the city's progress. It left Mosher destitute, walking the streets of downtown Phoenix wearing canvas shoes and fancy ball gowns.
Mosher, who died this week in 1945, lived a reverse fairy-tale life, going from riches to rags. But, at least her rags were nice.
Mosher was a downtown denizen. She owned land near Van Buren Street and Central Avenue and built a never-finished four-story building that came to be known as Mosher's Folly.
Reporters who worked at the nearby building that housed The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette would often see her walking the sidewalks. One, in a 1973 article, described her as "an eccentric old woman in tennis shoes and turn-of-the-century gowns who talked to herself as she foraged through trash bins and garbage cans for scraps of food."
Mosher came from high society.
She was the daughter of a pioneer who established the city's first ice business. According to her 1945 front-page obituary from the Gazette, Mosher was the first woman to own and ride a bicycle in the city, something that shook up residents who weren't ready for a lady to pedal a two-wheeler.
As a youngster, she was a member of Lester Payne's Mandolin and Guitar Club and gave annual concerts.
Mosher became a reporter at the Denver Post and married Charles Mosher, also a newspaper employee. The two separated after having a daughter, Julia. Mosher and Julia lived in Europe for a while, and Mosher studied music at two universities in Germany, the Gazette said.
They came back to the United States, and Julia married and moved to San Francisco. She died in 1918, an occasion people said marked a downward turn in Mosher's mental state.
Mosher started developing the property left to her by her father. It ran from Van Buren to Taylor streets and from Central Avenue to Second Street. She built a dance hall, an office building and an oddly shaped edifice that locals dubbed the "building on stilts." Mosher envisioned it as a luxury hotel; for a while, it was a nightclub with the name Mosher's Folly.
But Phoenix was becoming a booming city. And it wanted taxes to pay for sewers and paved roads. Mosher resisted, looking through law books and city codes to find novel ways to protest paying.
For example, the city wanted to pave one portion of the business district, but Mosher objected "on the grounds that the thickness of the concrete was not enough to withstand heavy traffic."
Bit by bit, her property was sold for unpaid taxes. Mosher ended up living in a partitioned-off area on the first floor of Mosher's Folly. When that building was sold in a tax sale, the new owner arranged a room for Mosher to stay in so she wouldn't be homeless.
Mosher collapsed on the sidewalk outside the U.S. post office on Central Avenue during the last week of October 1945. Doctors discovered an acute intestinal disorder, but could not get her body in good enough condition to perform surgery. She died of malnutrition on Nov. 1, 1945, at age 82.
Nothing remains of the buildings she had on the four-square-block area in downtown Phoenix.
The property now includes the old Republic-Gazette building, Arizona State University's journalism school and One Central Park East, a skyscraper under construction. The bar in the former Ramada Inn on the property was called Hattie Mosher's Restaurant-Pub for a brief time in the 1970s.
The Arizona Republic, Nov 7, 2009, by Richard Ruelas:
Her family started a business that sold ice in the desert, a sure way to make a fortune.
But Hattie Mosher's $1 million estate was slowly eaten away by mismanagement and the taxes that came with the city's progress. It left Mosher destitute, walking the streets of downtown Phoenix wearing canvas shoes and fancy ball gowns.
Mosher, who died this week in 1945, lived a reverse fairy-tale life, going from riches to rags. But, at least her rags were nice.
Mosher was a downtown denizen. She owned land near Van Buren Street and Central Avenue and built a never-finished four-story building that came to be known as Mosher's Folly.
Reporters who worked at the nearby building that housed The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette would often see her walking the sidewalks. One, in a 1973 article, described her as "an eccentric old woman in tennis shoes and turn-of-the-century gowns who talked to herself as she foraged through trash bins and garbage cans for scraps of food."
Mosher came from high society.
She was the daughter of a pioneer who established the city's first ice business. According to her 1945 front-page obituary from the Gazette, Mosher was the first woman to own and ride a bicycle in the city, something that shook up residents who weren't ready for a lady to pedal a two-wheeler.
As a youngster, she was a member of Lester Payne's Mandolin and Guitar Club and gave annual concerts.
Mosher became a reporter at the Denver Post and married Charles Mosher, also a newspaper employee. The two separated after having a daughter, Julia. Mosher and Julia lived in Europe for a while, and Mosher studied music at two universities in Germany, the Gazette said.
They came back to the United States, and Julia married and moved to San Francisco. She died in 1918, an occasion people said marked a downward turn in Mosher's mental state.
Mosher started developing the property left to her by her father. It ran from Van Buren to Taylor streets and from Central Avenue to Second Street. She built a dance hall, an office building and an oddly shaped edifice that locals dubbed the "building on stilts." Mosher envisioned it as a luxury hotel; for a while, it was a nightclub with the name Mosher's Folly.
But Phoenix was becoming a booming city. And it wanted taxes to pay for sewers and paved roads. Mosher resisted, looking through law books and city codes to find novel ways to protest paying.
For example, the city wanted to pave one portion of the business district, but Mosher objected "on the grounds that the thickness of the concrete was not enough to withstand heavy traffic."
Bit by bit, her property was sold for unpaid taxes. Mosher ended up living in a partitioned-off area on the first floor of Mosher's Folly. When that building was sold in a tax sale, the new owner arranged a room for Mosher to stay in so she wouldn't be homeless.
Mosher collapsed on the sidewalk outside the U.S. post office on Central Avenue during the last week of October 1945. Doctors discovered an acute intestinal disorder, but could not get her body in good enough condition to perform surgery. She died of malnutrition on Nov. 1, 1945, at age 82.
Nothing remains of the buildings she had on the four-square-block area in downtown Phoenix.
The property now includes the old Republic-Gazette building, Arizona State University's journalism school and One Central Park East, a skyscraper under construction. The bar in the former Ramada Inn on the property was called Hattie Mosher's Restaurant-Pub for a brief time in the 1970s.
Her family started a business that sold ice in the desert, a sure way to make a fortune.
But Hattie Mosher's $1 million estate was slowly eaten away by mismanagement and the taxes that came with the city's progress. It left Mosher destitute, walking the streets of downtown Phoenix wearing canvas shoes and fancy ball gowns.
Mosher, who died this week in 1945, lived a reverse fairy-tale life, going from riches to rags. But, at least her rags were nice.
Mosher was a downtown denizen. She owned land near Van Buren Street and Central Avenue and built a never-finished four-story building that came to be known as Mosher's Folly.
Reporters who worked at the nearby building that housed The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette would often see her walking the sidewalks. One, in a 1973 article, described her as "an eccentric old woman in tennis shoes and turn-of-the-century gowns who talked to herself as she foraged through trash bins and garbage cans for scraps of food."
Mosher came from high society.
She was the daughter of a pioneer who established the city's first ice business. According to her 1945 front-page obituary from the Gazette, Mosher was the first woman to own and ride a bicycle in the city, something that shook up residents who weren't ready for a lady to pedal a two-wheeler.
As a youngster, she was a member of Lester Payne's Mandolin and Guitar Club and gave annual concerts.
Mosher became a reporter at the Denver Post and married Charles Mosher, also a newspaper employee. The two separated after having a daughter, Julia. Mosher and Julia lived in Europe for a while, and Mosher studied music at two universities in Germany, the Gazette said.
They came back to the United States, and Julia married and moved to San Francisco. She died in 1918, an occasion people said marked a downward turn in Mosher's mental state.
Mosher started developing the property left to her by her father. It ran from Van Buren to Taylor streets and from Central Avenue to Second Street. She built a dance hall, an office building and an oddly shaped edifice that locals dubbed the "building on stilts." Mosher envisioned it as a luxury hotel; for a while, it was a nightclub with the name Mosher's Folly.
But Phoenix was becoming a booming city. And it wanted taxes to pay for sewers and paved roads. Mosher resisted, looking through law books and city codes to find novel ways to protest paying.
For example, the city wanted to pave one portion of the business district, but Mosher objected "on the grounds that the thickness of the concrete was not enough to withstand heavy traffic."
Bit by bit, her property was sold for unpaid taxes. Mosher ended up living in a partitioned-off area on the first floor of Mosher's Folly. When that building was sold in a tax sale, the new owner arranged a room for Mosher to stay in so she wouldn't be homeless.
Mosher collapsed on the sidewalk outside the U.S. post office on Central Avenue during the last week of October 1945. Doctors discovered an acute intestinal disorder, but could not get her body in good enough condition to perform surgery. She died of malnutrition on Nov. 1, 1945, at age 82.
Nothing remains of the buildings she had on the four-square-block area in downtown Phoenix.
The property now includes the old Republic-Gazette building, Arizona State University's journalism school and One Central Park East, a skyscraper under construction. The bar in the former Ramada Inn on the property was called Hattie Mosher's Restaurant-Pub for a brief time in the 1970s.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
