A Not-So-Ordinary Property With A History + A Lot of Stories

Welcome to Nana'sGardena, or "Grandma's House", a Queen Ann-style brick home originally  built in 1901 that fills the northwest corner of Sirrine Street at 2nd Avenue.
Your MesaZona blogger was stunned at the sight of this historic property while walking around the block and neighborhood with Augie Gastelum, head of NEDCO the Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation, a couple of months ago.

We strolled and talked for two hours on both sides of the east-west expanse of 2nd Avenue from Mesa Drive to Center Street in a district called Southside Heights [Los Altos].
Augie and his wife Jennifer purchased their own home, built in 1935, here about a year ago, welcoming a new addition to their family about the same time.
2nd Avenue is regenerating with both the old and the new side-by-side, improving all the time into a very livable and diverse neighborhood.
There are single-family homes nestled in with multi-family units, at least one group home/service organization, Community Bridges, a recovery treatment center, Riversource, and directly across Sirrine is Nana's Garden.

Here you'll find  a welcoming trellis arbor and a white picket fence, flowering shrubs, metal and stone sculptures,low-impact desert  landscaping, two pelapas, citrus trees, extensive plantings and gardens with benches, stone walkways, a grandchildren play area, and a surprising Koi Pond, with a close-up view in the image to the left.
Just the other day, "Grandma" Margaret Lambert and yours truly chatted under the shade of a tree enjoying the pleasant serenity by the water feature.
I apologized for maybe intruding on private property, after walking by a few times, but after seeing the welcome sign at the top of the arbor on a Sunday morning, ventured in.

Grandma, recently-divorced in 1979 decided to move to downtown Mesa with her two kids in 1979 buying this old house after looking at others.
It needed a lot of work thirty-five years inside and outside in the bare yard. Today it's  a work-in-progress.
Nana invited me into her office where's she's occupied with plans for the future and gathering historic photographs and documentation about the property and people who lived here starting in the last century . . . one of whom, Mrs. Wingar was married to an owner of The Mesa Ice Company.
Plans are underway with the City of Mesa Historic Preservation Board getting all the paperwork, approvals and research in place to establish the South Side Heights Historic District.