The Riordan Mansion: Two Families, One Roof
Near Flagstaff, Arizona
In the ponderosa pines of Flagstaff stands a mansion unlike most. It is actually two homes sharing a wall, built in nineteen oh four for brothers Timothy and Michael Riordan.
The brothers were the sons of Irish immigrants who came to Arizona Territory to run the Arizona Lumber and Timber Company. At their peak, the Riordans employed roughly two-thirds of Flagstaff's workers, making them the closest thing the young town had to a founding family. They married sisters from the same family, the Metz sisters, and built their twin houses side by side, joined by a shared common room they called the rendezvous room.
The architect was Charles Whittlesey, who also designed the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon. The result is thirteen thousand square feet of Arts and Crafts style architecture: log-slab siding, volcanic stone arches, hand-split shingles.
Descendants kept the home until nineteen seventy-eight, when it passed to Arizona State Parks, which opened it to the public in nineteen eighty-three. It is now a museum open to visitors.
