Tovrea Castle and Carraro Cactus Gardens (Phoenix, Arizona)

 NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, interesting place, cactus/succulent garden

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Historic castlesque house and surrounding cactus garden listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

Built: 1930 (gardens established in 1928)
Architect: H.D. Frankfurt (conceptual drawings); Alessio Carraro (original owner)
Architectural style: Vernacular Rococo; Italian Renaissance Revival influences
Areas of significance: Landscape Architecture; Commerce
Notable past owners: Alessio Carraro - prominent resort and real estate developer; Edward Ambrose Tovrea (successful meatpacking businessman); Della Tovrea (Edward's widow)
Area: 35.16 acres
Significant outbuildings: two additional 1-story residences; cactus nursery; dovecote; well house; machine shop; storage shed; gasoline pump house
Also known as: Carraro Heights; El Castillo
Date added to NRHP: 3/28/1996
Other designations: one of the Phoenix Points of Pride; Phoenix Historic Property Register
Notes: Tovrea Castle was originally conceived and built as a hotel and core of a planned resort. The late 1920s saw a boom in resort construction in this region of the Southwest, and this property was meant to take advantage of this. Alessio Carraro's attempts to purchase the roughly 40 acres immediately west of the castle as a buffer between his resort and other development failed when a price for the land could not be agreed upon. E.A. Tovrea (the castle's namesake and a prominent local businessman) was willing to pay more for the land, and used it to set up an extensive series of sheep pens, which was understandably disagreeable to Carraro, who felt the idyllic nature of his resort would be compromised by such development so close-by. His enthusiasm for the resort site dampened, Carraro ended up selling the castle and the remaining surrounding land to Tovrea. After E.A. Tovrea's death, the castle remained in the ownership of his widow, Della. An avid bird enthusiast, Della was known to have kept hundreds of birds of various species on the property. Della and William Stuart, publisher of the Prescott Courier and the man to whom she remarried, remained owners of the castle for many years. William died in 1960, and Della remained a resident of the castle until 1969 when an attack during an attempted burglary of the house left her fatally injured. After years of neglect and vacancy, the castle and its grounds finally opened to the public, under City of Phoenix ownership, in 2012.

www.tovreacarrarosociety.org/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Points_of_Pride