Photos by Benjamin Leatherman

The Arizona Tanning Company building near Sacaton.

​It takes about 45 minutes to get to the Arizona Tanning Company from downtown Phoenix, but making the trip is well worth the drive, especially if you're a fan of epic graf art.

Located a few miles south of Chandler's city limits near Sacaton, the burned out and dilapidated structure used to house a large commercial tannery back in the 1980s, which transformed cow hides into leather. These days, however, its become a haven for taggers and graffiti artists.

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Photos by Niki D'Andrea

Rosson House from the outside

​Downtown's Rosson House is a rare example of historic Phoenix architecture at 116-years-old. The home in downtown's Heritage Square was built in 1895, and all of the furnishings inside are from that period. The house also retains many of its original features, including parquet wood floors, nine Gib doors, a Queen Anne style staircase, and the kitchen sink.

The building is classified as Eastlake Victorian, but there are also other foreign touches, including French-inspired towers, Italian-inspired brick half-circles over the exterior windows, and an Asian-inspired moon gate. The house, originally built by Dr. Roland Lee Rosson in 1895 cost $7,500 and was owned by a handful of families until the 1960s, when it became a boarding house. Restorations began in the early 1970s (at a total cost of $750,000), and in 1980, Rosson House reopened as a museum.

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Photos by E. Groves

The Black Canyon City Dog Track, from the outside.

​The Black Canyon City Dog Track, about 40 miles north of Phoenix, is both a mecca for squatters and urban explorers and a fascinating study in decay. This massive property has been falling into rapid disrepair since the late 1980s, and remains one of the most accessible abandoned sites in the Valley.

Up until recently, the property was highly visible from the I-17 freeway, just past Anthem. That's because the building had the words "DOG TRACK" painted in big, block orange letters on the south side of the building. The "T" fell off at some point, so it read "DOG RACK" until somebody painted a black "C" on the building and it read "DOG CRACK." Now, the entire thing's been painted over. The dog track's still visible from the corner of Coldwater Canyon and Maggie Mine Roads, where people sometimes park and walk onto the property to explore.

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El Moises

A loteria card painting by El Moises.

​It may be the last weekend of life as we know it, so even if you're out for Third Friday artwalk in downtown Phoenix or planning on chilling by the pool, we have a couple more events to add to your schedule ...

Noche de Lotería @ Madison Events Center: More >>

Photos by Benjamin Leatherman

Glimpses from the abandoned Trotter Park in Goodyear.

​Ever wondered what this town might look like, post-apocalypse? The abandoned Phoenix Trotting Park racetrack in Goodyear is a pretty good preview -- and a pretty handy one if all those rumors of The Rapture happening in less than a week prove to be true.More >>

Photos by Benjamin Leatherman

Some of the surreal sculptures outside Gary Parsel's CenPho home.

Good thing Gary Parsel doesn't live in one of those tract-home communities out in the Valley sprawl; If that were the case, the Phoenix-based artist would probably tick off his local homeowners association (who seem to get their collective panties in a bunch over the smallest eyesore).

That's because 61-year-old sculptor and art activist prefers to adorn the front yard of his historic 1930s-era home in the heart of CenPho with his funky, stucco and cement sculptures.

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Benjamin Leatherman

The Hobo Joe statue at West Valley Processing.

​Sometimes the coolest things can by found in the unlikeliest of places. Take the Hobo Joe statue, for instance, in Buckeye.

He's a rather jovial and jaunty figure, and at 25 feet tall, the old-timey vagabond sticks out (in more than one way) from slaughterhouse behind him.

Hobo Joe's a cement and clay statue that was crafted in 1989 as a mascot for the now-defunct Hobo Joe's coffee shops. Today, he sits on the edge of a dusty, trash-strewn parking less than 75 feet from the cattle pens of West Valley Processing.

So why the heck is the ginormous statue for a long-extinct restaurant chain still standing, and in front of a meat processing plant? No, the owners of the slaughterhouse didn't place the statue there as distraction for doomed cows waiting to meat, uh...meet their maker.

The explanation is actually a bit weirder, and even has ties to some of the characters involved in one of the Valley's classic murder cases.

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