88 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [pTH. ANN. 28 
Compounp A 
Compound A (pls. 7, 11, 12) is not only the largest! of the Casa 
Grande compounds, but is also the most important, containing as it 
does the historic ruin and a few other walls of rooms standing above 
ground when excavations began. The following description is quoted 
from the writer’s preliminary report on the excavations at Compound 
A, in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections for 1907. 
The following buildings, plazas, and courts were excavated in Compound A: 
(1) Southwest building; (2) northeast building; (3) rooms on west wall; (4) six cere- 
monial rooms; (5) central building; (6) Font’s room; (7) rooms between Casa Grande 
and Font’s room; (8) rooms adjoining ceremonial rooms on north wall; (9) northwest 
room; (10) room near east wall; (11) northeast plaza; (12) central plaza; (18) east plaza; 
(14) southwest plaza; (15) south court. 
[The most important block of rooms is of course (16) Casa Grande. ] 
1. SOUTHWEST BUILDING 
Father Font wrote of Casa Grande as follows: ‘‘The house Casa Grande forms an 
oblong square facing to the four cardinal points, east, west, north, and south, and 
round about it there are ruins indicating a fence or wall, which surrounded the house 
and other buildings, particularly in the corners, where it appears there has been some 
edifice like an interior castle or watch-tower, for in the angle which faces towards the 
southwest there stands a ruin with its divisions and an upper story.” This southwest 
building is undoubtedly one of the ‘‘other buildings” referred to. [Pls. 13, 14.] 
In Font’s plan (fig. 117) [here, fig. 3] of Compound A, a single chambered room is 
represented in the southwest corner. Bartlett gave a plan of the cluster of rooms in this 
angle, but neither Bartlett’s nor Font’s plans are complete, for there are in reality six 
rooms in this corner of the compound, not counting an adjacent rectangular room sepa- 
rated from this cluster by a court. Several later authors have mentioned and figured 
these two fragments of walls standing above a mound southwest of the main building, 
and one or two have suggested that they were formerly connected with Casa Grande 
by walls. The best view of these pinnacles appeared in Cosmos Mindeleff’s valuable 
account of the ruin. 
The author's excavations of Compound A were begun at the base of the more western 
of these two standing walls, at the level of the ground, where it was found that the 
wall was so eroded as to be seriously undermined. It was recognized that extensive 
filling in was necessary at that point, and that other repairs were imperative to keep this 
fragment from falling. The fragment east of the last mentioned was, if anything, in 
a worse condition, and also required protection. 
Digging down below the eroded portion, there came into view a fine smooth-faced 
wall, which extended several feet still lower. The excavations were then continued 
north and south, following the face of the wall to the northwest and southwest angles, 
laying bare the whole west wall... . After having traced this wall, attention was 
directed to the general character and arrangement of the walls hidden below the mound 
near the bases of the two fragments of walls where the excavation started. It was 
found that the southwest corner of the compound is occupied by a cluster of six 
rooms . . . the most picturesque of all those uncovered during the winter. 
1 The dimensions of Compound <A are as follows: The length of the west wall is 419 feet; of the east wall, 
420 feet; of the north wall, 223.3 feet; and of thesouth wall, 215 feet. The w. t wall bearsnorth 3° 00’ east; the 
south wall, south 81° 35’ east. The west wall of the main building bears north 4° 30’ east, or south 4° 30’ 
west, i. e., 1° 30’ out of parallel with the compound. The dimensions of the various rooms may be seen 
from the ground plan (pl. 6), which is drawn to scale. 
