Manufacturer: Syracuse China
User: Southern Arizona School for Boys – Tucson, Arizona
Date of bowl: 1944

Main Room today with forest of branding irons hanging from ceiling beams

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Notes: From an article by William C. Barrow in the December 1986, issue of the Saguaro: The Southern Arizona School for Boys "was the creation of Captain Russell B. Fairgrieve and George A. Harper, two Midwestern teachers who each arrived in Tucson around 1926. Here Capt. Fairgrieve was Director of Religious Education at the Trinity Presbyterian Church, while Mr. Harper taught mathematics at Tucson High School. Combining talents they soon began plans for a ranch school that would prepare boys for college while exposing them to vigorous outdoor sports like horseback riding, polo, rodeo, tennis, baseball, volleyball and mountain climbing. Capt. Fairgrieve would serve as the school's business manager and Mr. Harper as Headmaster.

"They opened a temporary office at 1110 North Fremont Avenue in Tucson, organized a board of directors, raised $100,000 for first-year expenses, and began promotional efforts to attract students. Architect F.W. Sharman was hired to draft the plans for the campus and Vander Vries Realty & Mortgage Company was selected to oversee the actual construction.

"In the spring of 1930, ground was broken on their 80-acre site north of Ocotillo Drive. Adobe bricks were made from materials found on-site, 'except for the straw,' and used to erect a series of Hopi-style buildings with 16" walls. The campus was ready for its first 30 students by the fall term.

"For over 40 years the Southern Arizona School educated the minds, nourished the spirits, and strengthened the bodies of hundreds of boys. Upon graduation each senior traditionally designed his own brand and burned the design into the ceiling beams of the school's main building. An inverted forest of these personal branding irons still hang from the ceiling there, including two gold-plated ones which had belonged to a pair of graduates who were killed in World War II.

"Capt. Fairgrieve died on Christmas Day in 1972 and the SASB property was acquired by the Fenster School two years later." Fenster School closed in 2016, and the campus is now the Sabino Recovery Integrative Health and Wellness center – see a couple of the photos above.

Tan Syracuse Adobe ware bowl with two brown stripes around the verge. The stripes are broken at the top by the placement of the school's sepia logo. This consists of a drawing of a young man on a bucking bronco with cactus and mountains in the background. Underneath the horse in brown block letters are the stacked words "Southern," "Arizona," "School For Boys." The drawing is shown within a frame with a curved top.

Sources:
Cloverfield.org – 1986 Saguaro article by William C. Barrow
Tucson.com – article about the closing of the Fenster School
Arizona Historical Society – photograph of boys on the lawn

Contributors:
Bowl photos and research: Susan Phillips
Author: Ed Phillips