Seven Gilbert places worth a second look

Most of us know Gilbert by its errands: the drive down Gilbert Road, the turn into the library lot, the stop for a burger. Look a little closer and some of those familiar places have stories, and a few hold surprises. Here are seven worth a slower visit, from free outdoor stops to a museum in a 1913 schoolhouse.

1. Water Tower Plaza

The water tower at 45 W. Page Avenue went up in 1927 and stored water for firefighting, then drinking water, until 1985. When it went out of service, the Town Council chose to keep it, and the plaza around it opened in 2008. It was rebuilt over most of 2024 and reopened that December. Beside the tower stands a small adobe pump house that was Gilbert's first jail.

The detail people miss is the granite ball. It's a Kugel ball weighing several tons, floating on a thin layer of water, and a gentle push is enough to turn it. The plaza is a public park, and the tower is lit in different colors several times a year for holidays and community causes.

2. HD SOUTH

At the south end of the Heritage District, at 10 S. Gilbert Road, the original Gilbert Elementary School dates to 1913. It's the only building in Gilbert on the National Register of Historic Places, and today it holds the Gilbert Historical Museum, Gallery 4 for changing art shows, and a model railroad that the Gilbert Model Railroad Club runs on Saturdays. A quilting bee works in the building on several mornings a week. Look for the gift shops: they occupy what were the school nurse's and principal's offices.

3. The Alley Gallery doors

Walk the Heritage District and some of its back doors turn out to be paintings. The town's Alley Gallery puts work by Arizona artists on doors in busy pedestrian spots, part of a wider downtown public art collection the town calls the Community Canvas, which also covers painted electrical boxes, fiberglass benches and business murals. Six doors added in 2025 run from Heritage Marketplace at the north end to HD SOUTH at the south.

Two of them are on Joe's Real BBQ at 301 N. Gilbert Road: Crown Chakra by Andrea Peterson and Companion Planting by Charith Denson. It's an easy excuse to look at art and then go inside for barbecue made right there. HD SOUTH has two more, including Julia Berryman's Gilbert Desert Mandala. The town's online Public Art Map shows where everything is, and this year it asked artists to propose desert critters for a playful scavenger-hunt installation downtown, so there may be more to find soon.

4. The Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch

The preserve at 2757 E. Guadalupe Road looks like a nature park, and it is, but it's also part of Gilbert's water system. In 1986 the town committed to reusing all of its treated wastewater, and the preserve opened in 1999 as a way to combine that work with wildlife habitat and recreation. Of its 110 acres, 70 are recharge basins, filled in rotation so the water can soak into the aquifer. One pond has a channel built to behave like a desert stream that runs only after rain.

The town counts about 298 bird species seen on the site. Beyond the four and a half miles of trails, there's a floating boardwalk across the lake, an ethnobotanical garden, hummingbird and butterfly gardens, a paleontology dig site and a hilltop outdoor classroom. The trails are open to the public from dawn to dusk; stay on them and out of the basins.

5. The Gilbert Rotary Centennial Observatory

On the same grounds, beside the Southeast Regional Library, a small domed observatory opens to the public on Friday and Saturday evenings from sunset, weather permitting. Volunteers from the East Valley Astronomy Club run the computer-controlled telescope and choose what to show each night. Viewing is free, with donations welcome. On the second Friday of each month, club members set up extra telescopes for a public star party and give a talk in the library. Put your phone away while you wait in line: the observatory uses red lights so everyone's eyes can adjust to the dark.

6. Agritopia's farmhouse and Quonset hut

On Ray Road near Higley, Joe's Farm Grill fills a ranch-style slump block house built in 1966 for Jim and Virginia Johnston and their sons, and designed by D. D. Castleberry. The restaurant kept much of the original structure and its 1960s look, and its kitchen harvests fruit, vegetables and herbs from the farm next door. Joe's Farm Grill marked its 20th year in fall 2026.

A short walk away, Barnone fills a large Quonset hut with a community of makers. Among them is Garage-East, an Arizona farm winery that also pours specialty coffee, which makes a good place to sit and look around. On Farm Nights, held the first and third Wednesdays from September through May except January, local vendors set up on both sides of the hut.

7. The Sister Cities Friendship Garden

At Gilbert Regional Park, at Higley and Queen Creek roads, a small garden marks Gilbert's ties to two sister cities, Antrim and Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland and Leshan in China. Its 30-foot mural by Julia Berryman, the same artist behind one of the downtown doors, shows the three cities coming together. The park is public, and the garden carries a sensory guide like the park's playgrounds.

None of these takes a full day. Pick one you've driven past a hundred times and give it an hour.