122-year-old historic Tempe home to get new life. Here’s what will replace it

Article originally posted on AZ Central on October 17, 2025

A 122-year-old historic home in Tempe is preparing for its next life as an ice cream shop as construction began on the 1.5-acre site where it and a historic church stood for a century.

The Hub on Campus Tempe, a 30-story apartment tower, will be built on a 1.5-acre site at Myrtle Avenue and Seventh Street, a site that used to be home to the Harry Walker House, which had operated as the House of Tricks restaurant. The site also includes the First Congregational Church sanctuary. Both the church and the Harry Walker house are being preserved as part of the new development and will be given to the city of Tempe.

The house was relocated to a site adjacent to Tempe City Hall to make way for the new tower.

Both the house and the church are planned to be used for food and beverage venues, Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said. Novel Ice Cream, which has locations on Grand Avenue in Phoenix and in downtown Mesa is planning to take over the house as its newest location.

The city has not finalized a lease for the church site yet, which is staying at its location.

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Core Spaces and Wexford Developments are the developers of the Hub project, which will include 818 units, as well as ground floor retail space.

Joe Gatto, managing director of acquisitions at Core Spaces, said the coordination between the city, the development team and neighbors to the site has been extensive.

“All of the coordination resulted in a better project in the end,” he said. “Had we not done that, the project would have been worse.”

The development begins construction this month, with an expected opening date of fall 2028 for both the retail and residential.

“It is tremendously important,” Woods said of the collaboration to develop the site while preserving the historic structures. “We have residents who are attached to the church, people who got married there, with a lot of memories attached.”

Woods said he remembers staying at the House of Tricks on its final day, reminiscing and enjoying the restaurant that had been a staple in the community.

Renowned local ice cream shop taking over historic home

Shawn Allard, owner of Novel Ice Cream, said the new location follow’s Novel’s goal of “creating and curating really unique, special places.”

“We are always in very odd and quirky locations that others might not choose,” he said of the ice cream shop, which recently ranked first in the country for best ice cream shops.

Like Novel’s other locations, the Tempe shop will be window service with an outdoor patio where people can eat their ice cream. The remainder of the house will be used as the company’s headquarters and office space, he said.

The shop is famous for its Dough Melt, an ice cream stuffed doughnut, and other treats like floats and an ice cream stuffed waffle.

Allard said he had been looking at another space on Mill Avenue, but Woods approached him about the house.

“When I saw the space, I was like, ‘Yes, this is a goal for us, to highlight the uniqueness of the location,’” he said.

The new location will likely open in mid-2026, he said.