Unlike the haphazard early mining towns of the American West, Ajo was built from a formal master-planned vision intended to attract workers and investment for the New Cornelia Mine. Preserved as the only fully realized City Beautiful town center in Arizona, it reflected founder John Greenway’s belief in purposeful design, urban beauty, harmony, and symmetry, with a 1917 master plan whose boulevards radiating from the plaza evoked a bird opening its wings. The plaza was meant to bring people together and instill pride, comfort, and care among mine workers who made Ajo their home, and the historic town center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Yet this grand design also enforced physical segregation: housing was divided by ethnicity and status, with Anglos overseeing mine operations offered many home styles and locations, Mexican laborers limited to the Mexican Townsite, and Native American mine workers left to find housing outside the town center. Despite that separation, the plaza served as Ajo’s front yard where residents could relax, socialize, and celebrate together.