On your right, look for the light blue stucco building featuring a corrugated metal awning and a distinctly curved scalloped roofline rising in the center. This is the Van Marter Building, constructed in 1921 by contractor J. B. Lammers in the Mission or Spanish Revival style, which you can easily spot by that smooth plaster exterior and the sweeping arched parapet on the roof. Back in the early days of Kingman, businessmen had to wear a lot of hats to survive the rugged desert economy. So, Ray Marion Van Marter Senior decided to combine two services every town needs. He opened a mortuary, and right alongside it, a shoemaker shop. Nothing says convenience quite like getting your boots resoled while shopping for a headstone. But jokes aside, the Van Marter family was the bedrock of this community during some incredibly dark times. Before this solid stone structure anchored the street, the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic devastated the nearby mining camp of Oatman. The county contracted Ray's funeral parlor to handle the overwhelming number of indigent burials and provide emergency services. It was grueling, tragic work, but his steady efforts were exactly the kind of resilience that forged a lasting, connected society from a dusty frontier outpost. Ray's dedication extended far beyond city limits. In the nineteen thirties, he teamed up with a local woman, Mrs. Joe Daniels, to identify unmarked graves in the remote Hackberry silver mining cemetery. They painstakingly placed mortuary markers on the graves. Unfortunately, because they wrote the names on paper protected only by glass, the project ended in disaster. The harsh desert elements and wandering cattle eventually smashed the glass and destroyed the paper, leaving many of the graves anonymous once again. Still, the chapel inside this building became the central gathering place for the town's grief. When highly respected local pioneers or miners perished, the crowds were so massive that mourners spilled out onto Beale Street, pressing every available wagon and car into the funeral procession. It is quite the legacy for a man who also ran a shoe shop and held a registered Arizona cattle brand. Now, let us keep walking for about two minutes. Next up is the J. Max Anderson House, where we will meet one of Kingman's toughest women.
