[2] Doran sponsored a bill to fund the idea, presented to the 24th Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1907, but it was not passed.

Sited on a prominent granite hill overlooking Prescott's town square, Murphy put up 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) of his land for the building.

[4] Big Nose Kate, born Mary Katherine Horony, was admitted to the home in 1931 after six months of applications, finally appealing successfully to her longtime friend, governor George W. P. Hunt.

[10] Devoted primarily to a description of the quirky characters living there, the article said that the state-sponsored rest home was the only one in the U.S., not counting one in the Territory of Alaska built to house aging Klondike Gold Rushers.

Superintendent Jack Sills said that applicants were required to have lived in Arizona for 35 years, and that residents were given $7.50 each month to spend as they wished, usually on alcohol and tobacco.

[10] The Life article was described in detail in 1974 in a writeup published in The Prescott Courier in which reporter Claudette Simpson said that Life angered some locals for its crudely humorous portrayal of idiosyncratic and cantankerous residents, the humor delivered at the expense of Prescott's dignity.