Downtown Phoenix - defined as the few blocks east and
west of Central Avenue, and north and south of Washington Street -
is too hot, too run-down, and too spread out to walk around in any
comfort. The only time it's buzzing is when the World
Series-winning Arizona Diamondbacks are playing at the Bank One
Ballpark. At other times, life tends to revolve around the modern
Arizona Center mall, on Van Buren Street between Third and
Fifth, which is nonetheless a pale imitation of the mega-malls
further north.
What little remains of Phoenix's nineteenth-century architecture
now constitutes Heritage Square , a couple of blocks
southeast of the Arizona Center at 115 N Sixth St. Rather than
original adobe ranchhouses, however, it preserves a quaint
assortment of Victorian homes, converted into tearooms and toy
museums. You can get a better impression of the early days at the
Phoenix Museum of History , across the street at 105 N Fifth
St (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; $5), which features the city's
first jail - a rock with a chain attached. Twenty sun-baked blocks
west, the sparkling copper dome of the disused Arizona State
Capitol dominates the low-level sprawl. Documents in the dull,
dry museum within do little to bring the state's political history
to life (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm; free).
Two more significant attractions lie a mile or so north of
downtown. Thanks to extensive remodeling, the Phoenix Art
Museum , 1625 N Central Ave (Tues, Wed, Sat & Sun 10am-5pm,
Thurs & Fri 10am-9pm; $6, free Thurs 5-9pm), has plenty of
space to display its permanent collection, which includes paintings
by Georgia O'Keeffe and Rufino Tamayo, as well as de rigueur
Western art by Russell and Remington and some middleweight Old
Masters, and features stimulating temporary exhibitions. Three
blocks north and a block east, the Heard Museum , 22 E Monte
Vista Rd (daily 9.30am-5pm; $7), has also been greatly enlarged,
while still showcasing the lovely old buildings in which it was
founded. It provides a fascinating introduction to the Native
Americans of the Southwest, and their arts and crafts in
particular. There's an especial emphasis on the Hohokam, with
plenty of artifacts from the large town, now known as "La Ciudad,"
which occupied the site of modern Phoenix during the twelfth
century. Elsewhere, the superb pottery collection ranges from
stunning Mimbres bowls to modern Hopi ceramics, but the real
highlight is a refrigerated room filled with kachina dolls -
400 of them donated by the late Arizona senator Barry Goldwater -
arranged according to the Hopi sacred calendar.
If Phoenix gets too hot to bear, the coolest place to beat the
heat is on the east side of town at the Big Surf water park
, 1500 N McClintock Ave (May-Sept only: Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun
11am-7pm; $16), where you can ride 5ft waves or careen down
waterslides into a giant freshwater lagoon.