Dave Rodacks of Graebel Van Lines checks shelving for the Arizona history collection at the Polly

Richard Ramirez pushed a large container of maps down a long, cool corridor of the Polly Rosenbaum Archives and History building one recent afternoon. The container — a plan file — was lined with concrete to protect from fire damage, Ramirez said.
It’s a good thing the container was on wheels, considering it weighs about 1,500 pounds.
Later, Ramirez and other movers with Graebel Van Lines will go back for more maps, most of them housed in smaller cases.
Back in the old Capitol, in the basement of the 1938 Addition, Julie Hoff stood in the old map room. Hoff heads the map section of the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. The place is cluttered with map cases soon to be moved the new building, a few blocks away.
The movers have been working since September, removing drawers, plugging spaces with bubble wrap and encasing each drawer in a cocoon of cellophane to keep the maps from sliding around.
But the maps had to await their turn in what has been a massive move of the state’s archives and history collection. The archives themselves went first, including everything from diaries of territorial governors to the late Polly Rosenbaum’s papers. And a whole lot more. Next was the Capitol Museum collection, which needs storage when not on exhibit.
The Arizona collection was last on the moving schedule. The collection includes books on Arizona history — works on early settlers, Indian wars and Wyatt Earp. They, too, had been housed in the 1938 Addition — in dark, cramped spaces with poor ventilation that lacked proper climate control.
At the new building on Madison Street, they’ll be stored at a constant temperature on shelves that move on tracks. And there will be room to grow. New arrivals don’t have to be stored separately due to lack of space, as was the ritual before the new building was constructed.
Transitioning to the new archives building will cost an estimated $390,000. It was part of the original $38 million allocated for design, construction and startup costs. After the building went up, however, a fund sweep to plug a budget shortfall nearly wiped out moving expenses. For awhile, it appeared the Polly Rosenbaum building would ring hollow.
But the sweep was smaller than expected, amounting to a $2 million reduction after the number had been pegged at $3.5 million during initial discussions.
With moving money in hand, the state contracted with Office Movers of Baltimore, Md., as consultants. The company has orchestrated moves in Washington for the Library of Congress and restoration of the Pentagon following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The heavy lifting was handled by Graebal Van Lines of Phoenix. But volunteers pitched in as well, including retired librarian John Irwin.
He helped with books in the Arizona collection. The new building, he says, was a long time in coming.
“Finally, 25 years later, it’s actually happening,” Irwin said. “I’m so ecstatic.”
The effort to rally support for a new building was spearheaded by the Friends of Arizona Archives.
One of the FAzA founders is Doug Kupel, its current president. He recognized the need for new archives space, he said, while doing research as historian for the city of Phoenix. He went to the state archives for documents on a long-running water dispute.
“A lot of items I tried to find … were gone,” said Kupel, who also volunteered to help with the move.
The movers’ job will end soon. Then museum staffers will tackle one remaining document themselves — the original Arizona Constitution. It’s actually one of two copies. The other will remain in a separate building, in case of fire.
As constitutions go, it doesn’t exactly evoke a sense of history. It’s typewritten. Typewriters, after all, were the latest thing in 1910, when the state Constitution was drafted.
Still, the document is a part of history. It’s an archive. And it will soon have a new home, one more modern than a typewriter.

For more info. on state records' state-of-the-art new home: http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/story.cfm?ID=9858