Taking a trip through transportation history

Tucked away in an unassuming government office building in the West Valley is a storage room that's like a portal to a bygone era.

The mundane appearance of the ADOT Motor Vehicle Division building in Phoenix belies the more fascinating history safeguarded inside: a treasure trove of antiques, decommissioned equipment and miscellaneous memorabilia from ADOT's past.

Unofficially called the "Transportation Museum," the collection was started more than 30 years ago by longtime ADOT employees Ed Green and Bob Harris.

"Bob Harris and I talked about saving some of the history of the Arizona Highway Department and ADOT probably in the late 1980's," Green said. "We both had been with the department for several years and thought saving history was important."

Eventually, Green said that he and Harris, who was ADOT's Facilities Manager before retiring, had amassed such a large collection, they needed a place to store it. They were eventually able to secure a small area of the Old MVD building on Jackson Street in Phoenix, which was built in 1918.

"That served us well for several years," Green said. "But the building was due to be assessed for asbestos and the items needed to be removed."

Eventually, with the help of John Hetzel, ADOT's current Facilities Manager, they found a new storage location at the MVD building in Maryvale.

Among the hundreds of interesting items are an old surveyor's transit, a wooden detonator box, an old executive safe, a collection of old, wooden road signs, a crash helmet used for testing highway speeds, the "Highway Hawk" mascot head, and an old concrete milepost.

"Obviously we would like to see the collection saved and a true museum developed for a secure location to house the project," Green said. "History is what we are and that is important to record for preparing for the future."

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