Sun Health gives $161,000 to P.W. Litchfield Heritage Center

We’ll continue to strive to connect all of us with our past and be a place for research, education, community identity and discovery.”

Lisa Hegarty

Development

Litchfield Park breaks ground on new Heritage Center

A $161,000 donation from Sun Health will help the P.W. Litchfield Heritage Center move into Paul W. Litchfield’s historic hilltop home, giving the museum more room for exhibits, visitors and school groups.

Sun Health presented the gift Sept. 27 as the center marked its 25th anniversary with volunteers, supporters and local officials from across the southwest Valley. The money will support the center’s move from its current museum in Aunt Mary’s house to the Litchfield-Denny home on the Rancho La Loma Hilltop.

“This turnout is amazing,” said Lisa Hegarty, the center’s executive director. “It’s just really thrilling to see you all here to help us celebrate 25 years, and a lot of you have been a big part of those 25 years.”

The organization began as the Litchfield Park Historical Society in 2001. It moved into Aunt Mary’s house in 2008, opened the museum there in 2012 and adopted its current name in 2023 to reflect its growing regional role.

Since the museum opened, the center has welcomed thousands of visitors, recorded more than 200 oral histories and created 49 exhibits. Volunteers have contributed tens of thousands of hours.

Daryl Rigsby, a docent who has given tours for 10 years, said the move will allow the museum to display more of that history while better accommodating young visitors.

“This is kind of small,” Rigsby said of the current Heritage Center. “And it’s not really made for second graders.”

Megan Word, vice president of marketing and communications for Sun Health, presented the donation on behalf of the Sun Health Foundation.

“Every dollar of this gift was generously given by our community for our community,” Word said. “And we can think of no better way to steward that generosity than by investing back into an organization dedicated to preserving the history that we all share.”

Sun Health’s Litchfield Park presence includes La Loma Village. The organization also plans to develop the 300-acre Rancho La Loma property on land entrusted to Sun Health by the Litchfield-Denny family.

The Heritage Center will remain open through October before closing to the public so the current space can become a workshop for developing exhibits for the hilltop museum. The organization also will continue raising money for a second phase of renovations as it looks toward its next chapter in early 2027.

“We’ll continue to strive to connect all of us with our past and be a place for research, education, community identity and discovery,” Hegarty said.

Noah Flug
Reporter | Litchfield Park and Goodyear

nflug@iniusa.org

Community: Litchfield Park and Goodyear

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a minor in Digital Audiences from Arizona State University

Random Fact: I only have one biological cousin.

Hobbies: Watching movies and TV, spending time with my friends, aspiring stoic.