Last week, the city of Flagstaff relocated a historic house built and owned by May Hicks, known as the “Betsy Ross of Arizona”, who sewed the first Arizona flag in 1911 before statehood.
The home was slated for demolition to make way for apartments before the city purchased it.
Flagstaff resident Shawn Browning had a front row seat to the move a little before midnight.
“Well, there seems to be a house going down my street right now, which, is having a little bit of trouble navigating the Rio de Flag cut here on Leroux Street,” Browning said.
The 800-square-foot historic structure was towed on the back of a tractor-trailer a mile and a half to the city-owned recycling center off Butler Avenue.
Rhys Martian, with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, says Hicks sewed the Flag at the request of her then fiancé and his commanding officer in the Arizona National Guard.
“Although she did not create the design, she was the one who put it together for a flag for its very first display. But she was more than that, she owned businesses in Flagstaff. She was quite prolific, especially for that era in Arizona. And her story is mostly unknown outside of the city of Flagstaff, even in the greater state of Arizona,” Martian says.
Lauren Clementino with the city of Flagstaff and says it’s a nearly $100 thousand project.
“May Hicks is really a remarkable woman in Flagstaff and Arizona History, and this is pretty unusual for the city to have stepped in,” Clementino says. “As Flagstaff grows, as places are infilled, it really is important to identify places like this that are above and beyond something normal, and this is when it’s really time to step in.”
Clementino says its final location and use have yet to be determined but the house could end up in a city park or back in the city’s Southside neighborhood.
The Hicks House was recently listed as one of the most endangered landmarks in the United States by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
