Photos by Jon Simpson

a house once occupied by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor moves to tempe this month. But project backers still need another $1.8 million to make this home’s next life as successful as the last.

If these walls could talk, they would certainly say, “Welcome.”
Handmade using mud from the Salt River bottom in Tempe and painstakingly rubbed with milk to set, the 50-year-old adobe home near 40th Street and Camelback Road is an architectural reflection of its former occupant, Sandra Day O’Connor.
Unique. Elegantly simple. And very Arizona.
Even in its current state of de-construction, that much is obvious. And thanks to a local support network connected to Arizona State University by names like Barbara Barrett and Lattie and Elva Coor, the O’Connor house will stick around. It will be completely broken down and moved this month to a serene, historic setting in Tempe, where it will be rebuilt as a place to resolve political conflicts.
That was one of the home’s main purposes after O’Connor and her husband, John, built it in 1958. She wanted a setting that was similar to the ranch she grew up on in southeastern Arizona but functional enough to charm dignitaries from a life in law and politics.
Project supervisor Janie Ellis says the resulting home stood out from the “mega mansions” that now dominate Paradise Valley.
“It has it all, and it doesn’t have to be huge and ostentatious and covered with fake stone,” Ellis said during a recent site tour. “It’s very Arizona…. It’s a jewel of a house.”