Alexander P. Petit, 1819-1895
Architect
 
The Petits are buried in IOOF Cemetery, Block 4, Lot 2, Graves 1 & 2

(Generic image created with Bing AI)

Alexander Peter Petit was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania about 1819. However, the Gold Rush brought him and his wife Catherine to Sacramento, California, in October 1849. Although Petit was listed as a carpenter on the 1850 federal census, he was also a self-taught architect.
 
Petit spent the next several years building theaters and government buildings throughout northern California. With his partner James Queen, he went into the brickmaking business, and their South Sacramento brickyard was quite successful. Petit also became active in the community and was elected to the Sacramento city council.
 
Around 1879, Petit and his wife moved to Phoenix in the Arizona Territory. Shortly after his arrival, he designed the Irvine Building on First and Washington Streets, one of the first two-story brick buildings in Phoenix. His plans for the new Maricopa County courthouse and jail were accepted in August of 1879; however, construction was never begun because of funding issues with the County. 
 
Petit and Catherine then decided to pursue opportunities in Tucson, a more mature community. There, Petit designed and built several of the commercial buildings along Congress Street, including the Henry Buehman Photography Studio and Gallery and a school near Military Plaza. The Arizona Daily Star building, erected in 1883, is the only remaining evidence of Petit’s work in Tucson.
 
The Petits returned to Phoenix where in February 1891 Catherine died after a short illness. She was buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Cemetery—later one of seven cemeteries that constitute the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park near downtown Phoenix. 
 
Petit continued his architectural work for four more years. His last design was the Rosson House, located at 6th Street and Monroe. The Eastlake-Queen Anne style Rosson House was completed a month before Petit died on March 28, 1895. As a 50-year member of the Odd Fellows fraternal organization, he was buried in the IOOF cemetery next to his late wife.
 
Over the years, Alexander Petit’s contributions to Arizona’s history have been largely forgotten. While the Petits’ graves may have had headstones at one time, the original markers disappeared. In 2015, the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, through its Memorial Marker Program, placed two new markers on the Petits’ graves. 
 
© 2020 by Patty Gault. Last revised 27 April 2020.

​If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!

Wilson Augustus McGinnis, 1850-1899
Architect
 
Initially buried in AOUW Cemetery; later moved to Greenwood

(Generic image created with Bing AI)

​Wilson Augustus McGinnis was born in Dyer County, Tennessee, in February, 1850. He was the youngest of ten children belonging to John S. McGinnis and his wife, Martha Mathis (or Matthews?). 
 
By 1884, Wilson was in Phillips County, Arkansas, where he married Letitia “Lula” Vaughan on February 15th. Their first child, Neil Weston McGinnis, was born about a year later across the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee. Eula, their second child, was born in August 1886 in Texas. By July 20, 1888, the McGinnises was in Phoenix, Arizona, where four more children were born to them.
 
Wilson McGinnis was a very busy architect, surveyor and civil engineer in Phoenix and central-northern Arizona. He formed a partnership with another architect, Fred Heinlein, and, in 1890, they were the architects for the territorial insane asylum. He served as Phoenix’s city engineer until February 1893, when he resigned over a disagreement with the City Council.

McGinnis owned an almond orchard in south Phoenix. In July 1895, the trees were bearing nuts. He was also interested in growing ramie, a natural fiber.

On June 27, 1896, Fred Heinlein, the architect originally selected for the Normal School in Tempe, was discharged and the position given to McGinnis. A year later, he received a contract to examine the unfinished boys’ reform school in Flagstaff and design plans to convert it into an insane asylum. However, the contract was cancelled in August, 1897.

W. A. McGinnis was the Maricopa County surveyor until he suffered a breakdown in 1898. In June, he was remanded to the asylum he had helped design. His wife took him back to Tennessee in July in hopes that a change of scenery would benefit him, but to no avail.

McGinnis’s illness left two of his projects unfinished. Evidently the Board of Control decided that one insane asylum was enough for the Territory. The reform school in Flagstaff was converted instead into Northern Arizona University. Architect James Miller Creighton stepped in to finish Old Main at what is now ASU.

McGinnis died on August 2, 1899. He was buried initially in the AOUW cemetery, Block 18, Lot 3. His remains and those of his little daughter Etta were later moved to the newly-opened Greenwood Cemetery.
 
McGinnis had an AOUW life insurance policy which paid $2,000 on his demise. The money was used to pay off the mortgage on his almond orchard in the expectation that it would provide an income for his family.
 
© 2024 by Tim Kovacs and Donna L. Carr. Last revised 14 August 2025.

​If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!

Harvey Reid Leonard, about 1826-1896
Civil Engineer and Architect
 
Buried in City/Loosley Cemetery, exact location unknown

(Generic image created using Bing AI)

An architect and bridge builder, Harvey Reid Leonard spent most of his professional life on the Pacific Coast. Born in Illinois, he seems to have used the names Harvey and Henry interchangeably, at least at first. The federal census of 1860 records him as a simply a carpenter in Sacramento, California, where he was living with his wife Amanda and infant son.
 
Between at least 1860 and 1869, Leonard partnered with other architects who were active in the city at the time. According to San Francisco city directories, he maintained offices at 432 Montgomery Street and, later, 240 Montgomery Street.
 
Between 1871 and 1873, Leonard was in Portland, Oregon, with offices located at the corner of 1st and Ash Streets. While in Portland, he designed an engine roundhouse and a railroad bridge. By 1882, he was back in California as an employee of the Pacific Bridge Building Company, specializing in railroad bridges.
 
It appears that, sometime after 1880, Leonard’s wife Amanda died and he remarried. Perhaps it was not a happy match, as his second wife, E. M. De Lisle, eventually divorced him on grounds that he had deserted her when he moved to Arizona. 
 
H. R. Leonard relocated to Phoenix about 1890, probably with the intention of retiring. However, he found ample scope for his talents in the Salt River Valley and continued to work well into old age. In 1890, he was working with William Hancock to map sites for reservoirs. He designed a schoolhouse in Mesa in 1890 and one in Tempe in 1891.
 
Brick was a popular building material in Phoenix, as very little lumber was available locally. Initially, manufacturers used molds of different sizes. In January 1893, Leonard joined with several other Valley architects to call for the standardization of brick sizes. 
 
On May 6, 1893, Leonard undertook a reclamation expedition to see about the feasibility of building a water reservoir for northwest Yuma County. It must have been an arduous undertaking for a man in or approaching his seventies.
 
In February 1894, concerns were expressed about the structural soundness of the Phoenix Opera House for an upcoming performance. Architects Leonard and Petit were appointed to examine the structure. Leonard ruled that the performance could proceed, but the building should be remodeled with more exits and safety features incorporated.
 
When H. R. Leonard died on February 2, 1896, of cirrhosis hepatitis at the age of 85, he was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery. There is no grave marker.
 
© 2025 by Donna L. Carr. Last revised 25 August 2025.

If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!

Paul O. Gutike, 1842-1898
Soldier and Architect

Buried in Rosedale, G85

(Grave marker photo courtesy of Pioneers’ Cemetery Association, Inc.)

Paul O. Gutike was born about 1842 in Berlin, Prussia, supposedly to a good family which afforded him an excellent education. He arrived in New York on October 2, 1862, aboard the ship St. Bernhard, hoping to find work as an architect. However, the Civil War interrupted his career plans.

Scarcely three weeks later, on October 23, 1862, Paul found himself in Company K, 53rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (later became the 162nd). He may have been short of funds and enlisted voluntarily, but it’s also possible that he was more or less "drafted." 

On December 11, 1865, Gutike reenlisted in the  3rd U. S. Cavalry, being discharged three years later on October 1, 1868, at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He signed up again at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to serve in Company H, 5th U. S. Infantry, but deserted on May 28, 1870. He was dishonorably discharged December 4, 1870, at Fort Harker, Kansas. 

Gutike was not yet done with the military. In 1874, he reenlisted in Chicago, Illinois,  and deserted again in 1878. He was apprehended and sent to David’s Island, New York, where, after several months, his court-martial was remitted. He reenlisted again in Baltimore, Maryland. 1880 saw him stationed at Fort Washakie, Wyoming. 

He deserted again on July 2, 1882, and was apprehended January 5, 1883. When finally discharged in November 1884 because of a disability, he was serving at Fort Verde, Arizona Territory. Given that the Army always took him back after multiple desertions, it can be presumed that Gutike had particular skills that were useful on Western military posts.

By 1887, Gutike had found work as a draftsman for James Riely Gordon in San Antonio, Texas. Gordon eventually gained national renown for his Texas courthouse designs.

Gutike’s career as an architect and civil engineer burgeoned in Arizona. In 1889, Mrs. Vina Brown commissioned him to design some apartments at 4th Avenue and Adams in anticipation of providing quarters for winter visitors coming to Phoenix. The following year, he designed the plans for the Burke Hotel in Prescott, Arizona. The Burke was advantageously located on the corner of Montezuma and Gurley Streets and included ground-floor shops along with well-appointed rooms. (Advertised as the only “fire-proof” hotel in Arizona, The Burke was nevertheless destroyed during Prescott’s Great Fire of 1900. St. Michael’s Hotel is located on the site today.)

Gutike hadn’t forgotten his years in the military, either. In 1891, he drew up plans for two new buildings to house troops at Fort Whipple.

Paul became well known in Phoenix, but according to his obituary, had a propensity for drink. He died in July 21, 1898 of gastritis and was buried in the Rosedale Cemetery.

© 2019 by Patricia M. Gault. Last revised 25 August 2019.

​If you would like assistance researching our interred, you can find more information on our website. You can contact us at [email protected] at any time. Thank you for your interest to preserve the history of Arizona's pioneers!