Our chapter is named for Charles Trumbull Hayden (April 4, 1825 – February 5, 1900). Mr. Hayden was an American businessman and probate judge. He was a descendant of English settlers who arrived in 1630 and settled in the Connecticut River valley. Hayden was influenced by Henry Clay’s vision of opening the West to settlement by the development of roads and canals. By 1847, Hayden was working as a teamster hauling freight on the Santa Fe Trail. He soon operated shops in Santa Fe, south of Tubac, and Tucson, and his wagons hauled provisions all over the Southwest. He was appointed as Tucson’s first probate judge in 1864.

Charles Hayden purchased a tract of land along the Salt River in the Arizona Territory. He eventually built a general store, flour mill, and ferry, giving rise to the name Hayden’s Ferry. In 1873, Hayden built his home on the land. It was a small adobe building and the original structure of La Casa Vieja. His influence was felt in the development of the Arizona Territory where he helped found both the city of Tempe and Arizona State University. Hayden remained in Tempe for the rest of his life and died on February 5, 1900. He is buried in Tempe’s Double Butte Cemetery. Mount Hayden in the Grand Canyon is named after him. Hayden is the father of U.S. Senator Carl Hayden, the state’s first U.S. Representative who served for over 50 years.

Today the C. T. Hayden House, Mr. Hayden’s home built sometime around 1873, is still standing. It is the oldest continuously occupied structure in the area. Also known as La Casa Vieja, “the old house,” it has served as a boarding house, a restaurant, and is today the home of the Downtown Tempe organization. The property underwent renovations including restoration of the original adobe dwelling. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and the Tempe Historic Property Register in 2000.