Henry Zipf (far right) at his boyhood home, the Feldman Ranch House in, Dudleyville, Arizona.
Henry Zipf 2010
About ten miles north of the dusty desert town of Mammoth, Arizona, you’ll see a dilapidated homestead with a red tin roof. I knew it as the PZ Ranch, and passed it every day when I lived in Aravaipa Canyon.
I longed for a chance to some day tour the place. I was dying to know if it had any of the original moldings, and if so, what did they look like?
My chance came when I was invited to tour the ranch with a few other local folks. The tour was given by none other than Henry Zipf, great grand-son of the original 1890 owner, George Pusch.
Henry lived in the house when he was a boy, and his narrative was filled with simple, happy childhood memories of life on the ranch — the people, the animals, the landscape.
In the late 1800’s the PZ was a working cattle ranch, grew a number of crops, and also served as a stagecoach stop for those traveling along the San Pedro River.
When I walked inside the tumbledown old home, I was elated to find that most of the moldings were still there.
The baseboard, door trim, picture rails, were all made from simple, one inch thick flat-stock.
All of these ranch moldings are wide — about 10″ tall for the baseboard and about 6″ wide for the door trim and picture rail.
What joy to find some of the original moldings still inside.
The farmhouse was built during the Victorian architectural period, and so we can label the moldings as such; though we normally associate flat-stock moldings like these with Craftsman style homes. I’ve assigned each pattern a number, and in time will add them to the Numbered Patterns in the Gallery.
- DOOR TRIM-H100
- BASEBOARD-H100
- PICTURE RAIL-H100
Note how the door trim moldings are joined at the top.
Tall ceilings helped move the Arizona heat up and away from the living areas.
The baseboards have a slight round to their upper, outer edge.
I’d like to know if the moldings were made on site or if they were purchased in town. My suspicion is that they were milled elsewhere. I’ll ask around and update at a later date.
During the heat of Arizona summers, Henry and his family moved the beds out onto this large porch.
Photo c. 1920 of Henry, his brother and their dog, Ben.
There are a lot of people working to find the funds to restore this beautiful old piece of Arizona history. The house is at the point where restoration needs to happen soon, as the older it gets the faster it falls apart.
