The Polly Rosenbaum Building, formerly the El Zaribah Shrine Auditorium, is a building in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

, at the corner of 15th Avenue and Washington Street, that was built in 1921. The building formerly housed the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum.Bill Coates
Legendary lawmaker has 2 state buildings named in her honor
''Arizona Capitol Times'', September 1, 2006 The building was completed in 1921 as a home for the activities of the El Zariabah Shrine unit, a local

Shriners Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic body, Masonic society. Founded in 1872 in New York City, it is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, and has over ...

organization that had been formed in 1896.What is El Zaribah Shrine
El Zaribah Shrine Auditorium website, accessed October 26, 2010 It was designed by architects Lescher & Mahoney and built by Clinton Campbell. It is an

Exotic Revival In the United States, the National Register of Historic Places classifies its listings by various types of architecture. Listed properties often are given one or more of 40 standard architectural style classifications that appear in the National ...

Moorish Revival Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticism, Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mi ...

style building. The building and its property were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

for the building's architecture in 1989 as "El Zaribah Shrine Auditorium". It was also listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register at that time. In 1988 the Shriners began construction of a new building and made plans to vacate the building at 15th and Washington, which was in an area where the state government was establishing a government mall. In late 1989, the Shriners completed their new auditorium building at 552 N. 40th Street, which now bears the name "El Zaribah Shrine Auditorium". After the Shriners relocated, the state government of Arizona acquired their original building to house the

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

and offices of the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, which moved in in October 1991. The building was renamed the Polly Rosenbaum Building in honor of

Polly Rosenbaum Edwynne Cutler "Polly" Rosenbaum (September 4, 1899 – December 28, 2003) was a teacher and politician who was Arizona's longest-serving state legislator, representing Gila County in the Arizona House of Representatives for 46 years.

, a longtime member of the

Arizona House of Representatives The Arizona House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. The upper house is the Arizona Senate, Senate. The House convenes in the le ...

who, in collaboration with then-governor

Rose Mofford Rose Mofford (née Perica; June 10, 1922September 15, 2016) was an American civil servant and politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 18th governor of Arizona from 1988 to 1991. Her career in state government spanned 51 years, beginn ...

, spearheaded efforts to obtain and renovate the building as a permanent home for the Department's

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

collection and

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

. This is one of two Arizona state government buildings in Phoenix that are named for Rosenbaum; the other is the Polly Rosenbaum State Archives and History Building, located at 19th and Madison and completed in 2008. In February 2010, Governor

Jan Brewer Janice Kay Brewer (''née'' Drinkwine; born September 26, 1944) is an American politician who served as the 22nd governor of Arizona from 2009 to 2015, as a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. Prior to this, Brewer ...

announced that the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum would become the Arizona Centennial Museum for the state's 2012 centennial celebration. The building was to be transferred from the Arizona Dept of Mines and Mineral Resources to the Centennial Commission then subsequently to the Arizona Historical Society. The mining museum was abruptly closed on May 1, 2011, but funding for the proposed museum did not materialize. In 2012 the building was closed and empty. There were later plans in association with the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

for the building to be developed as an Arizona Mining, Mineral and Natural Resources Education Museum.

References

{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Phoenix, Arizona Masonic buildings in Arizona State government buildings in the United States Government buildings completed in 1921 Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Phoenix, Arizona Moorish Revival architecture in Arizona 1921 establishments in Arizona Shriners