Street Fighting Woman: The Riches-to-Rags Story of Downtown Phoenix’s Hattie Mosher
Territorial Phoenix was shaped by a remarkable woman who confidently challenged societal norms. Hattie Mosher, a wealthy socialite, was talented in the arts, excelled as a crusading reporter, ran twice for public office, and fought back with lawsuits when things didn’t go her way. No hurdle seemed too daunting for Mosher, a progressive force in local matters, until her life hit a proverbial pothole.
Despite her early groundbreaking achievements, in her final years, Mosher descended into an eccentric street persona, wearing ragged clothes and carrying a bag of scavenged food. It’s unclear what caused Mosher’s sudden decline, but mental illness is a possible explanation.
What’s crystal clear is that Mosher grew up wealthy because of ice. Her father, Samuel Lount, invented a process to freeze water for commercial use in Michigan. In 1879, he relocated his family, which included 14-year-old Hattie, to Phoenix and established himself as a successful businessman. Hattie was the bookkeeper for her father’s company and illustrated the side panels of his horse-drawn delivery wagons, which transported ice, with images of polar bears playing on icebergs.
In 1884, Hattie married journalist Charles L. Mosher, and the couple soon had a daughter, Julia. They relocated to become reporters for the Denver Post, where Hattie Mosher thrived on exposing government corruption. She divorced her husband in 1892 and returned to Phoenix.
Mosher and her daughter moved to Europe in 1903, where she was employed by an American news service. On the side, the talented lady earned a few university degrees, became fluent in three languages, and revealed the first glimpse of eccentric behavior. When her mother sent Mosher a $25 money order, the German post office charged a 10-cent delivery fee. “But if I pay that, I won’t be getting all the money from my mother,” she told a family friend. “Send it back to Phoenix.”
After her parents' death, Mosher returned to Phoenix in 1907 and inherited four unimproved city blocks that stretched from Van Buren to Taylor streets and from Central Avenue to Second Street. The 10-acre site now includes the Arizona State University Downtown Phoenix campus.
Phoenix wanted to spiff up its appearance with street improvements, but Mosher refused to pay the tax assessment on her lots. She filed the first of numerous lawsuits against City Hall and “spent long hours poring over law books and tax and property records endeavoring to find ways of winning [the] suit,” according to the Phoenix Gazette.
Mosher ran for a seat in the Arizona State Senate in 1922 and a position on the Phoenix City Commission in 1923. Both times, she lost in the primaries.
The feisty landowner obtained construction loans and designed two unusual buildings that Mosher left half-finished. These projects, along with the lawsuits, steadily drained her fortune. Because the city placed tax liens on Mosher’s properties, she was unable to sell them, and others gradually acquired ownership.
Mosher was evicted from her home in 1935 and lived in an unfinished basement. The frail woman wandering the streets became a pitiful sight, yet her death at age 80 in 1945 made front-page news. Many Phoenicians had a soft spot for the colorful, multi-talented woman who helped shape Phoenix during its early years.
Douglas C. Towne is the editor of Arizona Contractor & Community magazine, www.arizcc.com