Friday, April 20, 2012

Tovrea Pyramid and Hunt's Pyramid



There’s a Pyramid and a Castle?
If you have not made it to tour Tovrea Castle and Carraro Heights yet you are missing out on the castle and the pyramid. Carraro’s dream was to bring a piece of Italy to the states by building the castle inspired structure and use it as a show piece hotel at the center of his resort community. This dream fell short due to the economic hard times of the 1930’s and the expanding cattle property of E. A. Tovrea. Tovrea had a dream structure fall shy of its purpose as well.
Hunt and Tovrea

The first governor of Arizona, George Hunt built the white tiled pyramid near the Papago Buttes to entomb his wife in 1931. He too was buried in the pyramid 1934. Several other members of the family were also buried there as recently as the 1980s.
Max and I took a walk around the islands of Papago park and up to Hunt’s Pyramid. I was surprised that it was finished in simple white tile, about the same as my bathroom. The view is more spectacular than the pyramid but it was worth the short climb and a great place to have a small picnic on a lunch break.

But, what does Hunt’s Pyramid have to do with the brass pyramid Tovrea constructed? Not as much as E.A. Tovrea would have liked. E.A. and Hunt were long time friends and because of that, or maybe because of good old fashion friendly competition, Tovrea wanted to be buried beneath a pyramid too. It didn’t really work out for him. By the time Tovrea passed on the laws had changed and bodies could only be entombed on cemetery grounds.
The pyramids can be seen from one another, just barely, by the naked eye. I would love to see the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation department and the Tovrea Carraro Society work together to place a pair of those public binocular setups at each location. Just a thought. Until then, take your binoculars with you and visit these interesting structures.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/15171
On a side note, do you know how many pyramids are actually in Phoenix? Leave some answers for me until next time.

Hunt's Tomb
Phoenix, AZ
(602) 262-6862

Tovrea Carraro Society
P.O. Box 61043
Phoenix Arizona
602-256-3221
http://www.tovreacastletours.com

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