By Robrt L. Pela | Phoenix New Times
William Link admitted, over breakfast at a Grand Avenue diner, that he had a box at home full of hardware he’d yanked out of the W. R. Norton House back when he owned it. “I took all the doorknobs and hinges,” he said. “If the new owners truly restore the interior, and it’s period correct, I’ll give them the hardware. Then they can reinstall it.”
Lately, Link had high hopes for the future of the beleaguered mansion at 22nd Avenue and Washington Street. One of very few homes left from the West Capital Addition, a 19th-century subdivision of similarly stately structures, Norton House has been a mess for decades. Its brick and wood construction is charred with black soot from a fire; its windows are busted out; its gingerbread had long ago rotted away or been stolen.