The House

THE MAIN RANCH AND GUEST HOUSE, which comprise the Discovery Center at Kings Ranch Estates, were built in 1939-1940 by Rufus Riddlesbarger, a wealthy Chicago businessman and founder of Kinjockity Ranch. These buildings are outstanding examples of the Pueblo Revival style of architecture.

THE EARLIEST examples of the Pueblo Revival style appeared in California in the 1890s. The Pueblo Revival grew out of a search for a genuinely “native” American architecture, and a desire to promote the Southwest as an exotic and romantic region with close ties to its Native and Hispanic past. By the 1920s, Pueblo Revival had become well established in both domestic and public works architecture in California, Arizona, and especially New Mexico. Riddlesbarger had become captivated by the scenery and climate of the Southwest and his choice of the “native” Pueblo style was a natural fit.

The exterior of the Ranch buildings present a profile unique even among Pueblo Revival structures. Every detail is meant to convey the impression of a handmade building: the parapet tops are rounded, rather than squared; the window headers are only partially exposed, with an uneven line separating wood and stucco; the portal vigas rest on notched posts; the walls, viewed from the side, undulate slightly and often flare out near the bottom; and the protruding vigas are irregularly spaced and in some cases missing altogether.

ONE OF THE KEYNOTES of the Pueblo Revival style, besides a sense of romanticism, is the effect of rusticity. The “handmade” appearance of the Ranch buildings, together with the extensive use of rustic materials such as cactus ribs, peeled pole portals, flagstone floors, log beams, and the use of deliberately weathered wood in many of the entrance doors and ceiling beams greatly enhance this effect. At no point on either building will the viewer see a straight line that is sustained for more than a few feet. Even more than the use of rustic materials, Raymond Phillips Sanderson’s extraordinary artwork and interior decorations convey a sense of the “primitive”, evoking Native American traditions. Sanderson graced numerous walls and ceiling beams in the main building with motifs and decorations, freely adapted from Southwest Indian artistic traditions. Light fixtures made of clay pots resting in tripods and platforms add not only a rustic touch but also a suggestion of Indian craft, applied to modern-day design challenges.

Rufus Riddlesbarger sold his beloved Kinjockity Ranch in 1947. Over the next few decades the Ranch changed ownership several times and alterations, some more sensitive than others, were made to the buildings’ interiors. The exterior, however, remains generally as it appeared at its completion in 1939. Largely due to this maintenance of design integrity, Kinjockity ranch received the honor of a coveted listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 1939, as one of the most outstanding examples of the Pueblo Revival style in America. The development of Kings Ranch Estates ensures that this work of priceless American architectural heritage will be preserved and maintained for generations to come.

The Architect:
Edward C. Morgan

VERY LITTLE IS KNOWN of Edward C. Morgan, the Phoenix-based architect who designed Kinjockity Ranch’s main and guest houses. According to Phoenix city directories, he lived and worked in Phoenix from at least 1932 to 1942, describing himself variously as a builder, contractor, and (most commonly) an architect. His specialty seems to have been adobe construction in either the Pueblo style or in what local newspapers of that era referred to as “the Mexican style”. So far, three houses in the Phoenix area, all built in 1938, have been positively identified as having been designed by Mr. Morgan. Two are Mexican-style adobes, while the third is a Pueblo-style adobe.

In his small catalog of surviving work, the Kings Ranch buildings will almost certainly stand as Edward Morgan’s most significant and lasting achievement. Their restoration and transformation into the Kings Ranch Discovery Center ensures that his legacy and memory will survive.

The Artist:
Raymond Phillips Sanderson

Born in Bowling Green, Missouri, in 1908, Raymond Phillips Sanderson studied painting and illustration at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Kansas City Art Institute. After an apprenticeship, he moved to the dry climate of Arizona, settling in the mining town of Bisbee. There, Sanderson was commissioned to produce a large statue to be erected as a miners’ memorial. The so-called “Copper Man” statue still stands on prominent display in Bisbee, in front of the Cochise County courthouse, which itself contains a series of historical plaques also executed by Sanderson. In 1937, Sanderson moved to Phoenix to teach. He began to receive commissions for decorative work on buildings in the Phoenix area and elsewhere in Arizona. One of his first commissions was from Rufus Riddlesbarger in May 1939 for the Kinjockity Ranch buildings. Sanderson had a strong interest in Native American art forms and this gave him the opportunity to try his hand at a collection of decorative pieces done in conscious imitation of those artistic styles – in particular, that of Navajo imagery. Sanderson’s work at Kinjockity Ranch, however, does not typify the Pueblo Revival style. Indeed, it reflects a fascination with exotic, non-Western symbols and images more commonly found in the Art Deco movement. This fusion of styles has been referred to as “Pueblo Deco”.

For the remainder of his career, Sanderson’s work largely fell into one of two categories: Freestanding sculpture, mostly for private collectors, and murals, wall sculptures, relief carvings, and architectural designs, commissioned as part of public and private building projects. He taught sculpture and drawing at Arizona State College, worked as a technical illustrator and did commissioned work for a multitude of clients, including schools, hotels, public buildings and real estate developments. A prominent example of the latter would be the “world’s largest kachina”, a 40-foot-tall Hopi Kachina created in 1957 for the Tonto Hills subdivision, north of Phoenix. Perhaps Sanderson’s most visible commissions were those done for the Phoenix-based Valley National Bank. Sanderson executed sculptural decorations, both interior and exterior, for many of the bank’s 90 branches around the state between 1949 and 1971. After his death in 1985, the Arizona Republic newspaper eulogized Sanderson as “one of the patriarchs of Arizona art.” Today, among scholars and collectors, Sanderson is venerated as a regional artist of superior skill. He left behind a distinctive and original body of work which says much about both the artist and his adopted state. Raymond Phillips Sanderson’s Kinjockity Ranch work, now to be seen by the larger public for the first time since its execution 70 years ago, will undoubtedly come to be regarded as one of the foundation stones of his artistic legacy.