Ajo, Arizona -- Ajo Plaza was purchased by the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (Aaron Cooper, CEO) in 2008 and is in the midst of a multi-year process of restoration and revitalization. Recently, the International Sonoran Desert Alliance was able to expand its purchase with additional land and buildings totaling $1.013 million.
The heart of the community, the graceful plaza, was built in 1917 under the direction of John Greenway’s wife Isabella. The Spanish Colonial Revival style town square features a center park surrounded by retail shops, a post office and restaurants accented with two mission-style churches. The Catholic Church was built in 1924 and the Federated Church in 1926. The plaza with its beautiful center park is truly Ajo’s town center—a place for festivals and celebrations, morning walks, and meeting friends for coffee.
The Ajo Train Depot anchors the town plaza and was designed as the point of arrival from which to view historic downtown Ajo. Built in 1915, the Ajo Depot served the Tucson, Cornelia, Gila Bend railway. It now houses the Ajo District Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center and Gift Shop.
High-grade native copper made Ajo the first copper mine in Arizona and Ajo boomed in 1911. The Tucson, Cornelia and Gila Bend Railroad was built from Gila Bend to serve the mining industry and was in service from 1916 to 1985. In 1921, Phelps Dodge, the nation's largest copper company, bought New Cornelia and the mine became the New Cornelia Branch of Phelps Dodge, managed by Michael Curley. For several decades more than 1,000 employees worked for Phelps Dodge in the open pit mine. In 1983 union-affiliated mine employees went on strike. The mine continued with non-union labor for a short while before stopping production in 1985
Today, there is 85,000-square-feet of building renovation and restoration in progress in Ajo Plaza. Businesses currently occupying the plaza include the Chamber of Commerce, Public Library, Post Office, AZ DES, and several non-profit groups and art galleries.