Duppa homestead south of downtown Phoenix is a part of history

• The original 160-acre homestead was founded in 1871 by "Lord" Phillip Darrell Duppa, a Brit who worked with Phoenix founder Jack Swilling.
• He later sold the site to dairyman John Montgomery.

Catch up quick: Duppa is credited with giving the fledgling city its name.

• Legend has it the city's birth on the ruins of the vanished Hohokam civilization led Duppa to compare it to the Phoenix, the mythical bird that rose from its own ashes.
• Duppa is also credited with naming Tempe, and he founded New River.

The intrigue: Accounts of the homestead vary. Some describe the house as the oldest in Phoenix, others say it's just one of the oldest.

• Jim McPherson, president of the Arizona Preservation Foundation, told Axios it's unclear whether it was actually a house and that some believe it was a shed or accessory building.
• "The debate still rages as to what the use was," he said.
• It was discovered in the 1980s that the building was constructed for Montgomery's dairy, per a 2015 city report.

The bottom line: Whatever the building's purpose was, it's a piece of history that's discretely nestled against American Legion Post 41.