Data Collection Report - Flood Control District of Maricopa County

1922 map, Buckeye Road is shown as paved west from Phoenix to thebanks of Agua Fria River. After crossing the river, the road is againshown as being paved all the way west to Buckeye (Phoenix Chamberof Commerce 1922).By 1926, more than $1 million of federal aid had been spent to constructthe Phoenix to Yuma highway (State Engineer 1926:29-30). TheArizona Highway Department contracted with an El Paso firm to buildthe highway bridge over the Agua Fria River in 1924. The concretegirder bridge measured 32 feet long (FraserDesign 1987:44).A few years later, highway engineers instituted the use of highwaynumbers to replace the myriad of highway names that had designatedoften over-lapping routes. In Arizona, the east-west route that had beencalled the Bankhead Highway, the Atlantic-Pacific Highway, the LeeHighway, the Old Spanish Trail, and the Borderland Route became “U.S.Highway 80” by 1926 (State Engineer 1926:22). The federally fundedhighway followed Buckeye Road, rather than Van Buren, on its Phoenixto Yuma route, and was paved from just west of Palo Verde intodowntown Phoenix and east to Mesa; the remainder of the highwayremained ungravelled, ungraded dirt (The CMC Company 1923).Defense Plants and New HousingIn addition to the several air fields built in the Phoenix area in the earlyyears of World War II, the businessmen of Phoenix worked with federalofficials to secure defense plants for their area. Goodyear Aircraftannounced its plans to construct a plant at Litchfield Park west ofPhoenix in July 1941, and opened the $500,000 airplane parts plant inNovember that same year. At its peak, the plant employed 7,500workers. The next year, the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA)built a plant on a 300-acre site at 35 th Avenue and Van Buren Streetwhich employed 3,500 workers.The influx of new workers into the Phoenix area caused a housingshortage and strained the already inadequate public transportationsystem. To increase the number of homes available and to decrease thedependency on city buses, federal agencies built public housing projectsadjacent to the plants to house the defense workers, such as “AlzonaPark,” built across from the Alcoa plant (Luckingham 1989:141).A map of 1946 Phoenix subdivisions illustrates just two subdivisionswest of 35 th Avenue and south of Van Buren in that year, adjacent toeach other just south of the Alcoa Plant (Valley National Bank 1946).Alco Acres, platted in 1942, extended from the railroad tracks south toSherman Street, and from 37 th Avenue west to 39 th Avenue. The platmap does not indicate whether public or private monies financed thehousing in Alco Acres. Interestingly, the Alco Acres subdivision wasmade up of large lots measuring 150 feet across and more than 300 feetdeep, perhaps in an attempt to maintain the rural feel of the area or toencourage residents to plant Victory Gardens. The second subdivisionillustrated on the 1946 map, Homedale, extended from the railroadtracks on the north to Buckeye Road on the south (U.S. Highway 80),and from 39 th Avenue on the east to 41 st Avenue on the west. Platted in1945, the Homedale subdivision lots were much smaller than lots in theneighboring Alco Acres. 66 Although one source notes the creation of Alzona Park “across from Alcoa,” the name does notappear on the 1946 Phoenix subdivisions map. Two possibilities exist. Either the Alzona Park subdivision wasbuilt after 1946, after the influx of wartime defense workers, or the “Alco Acres” indicated on the 1946 mapis another name for Alzona Park (Luckingham 1989:141; Valley National Bank of Arizona 1946).Recommendations on Treatment of Historical Resources Within theStudy AreaRemnants of the area’s history continue to dot the landscape today.Roads follow the section lines laid out more than 130 years ago. In therural sections, tree-lined lateral canals trace the boundaries ofagricultural fields just as they have for more than a hundred years, andremnants of the earliest Anglo-constructed canals may still be extant.Modest, sometimes dilapidated, farm houses hint at the hundreds offamilies who made their homes here in the first half of the twentiethcentury, while larger-scale agricultural facilities tell of the importance ofagricultural production. Roadside businesses follow the route of U.S.Highway 80. The subdivisions platted in the 1940s demonstrate theattempts to house a huge influx of World War II defense plant workers.Two surveys to determine the presence of historical properties within thearea have been completed. The first survey, conducted in the mid-1970'sprior to the compilation of the Environmental Impact Statement for thesection of Interstate 10 known as the Papago Freeway, identified elevenhistoric properties within the ADMP project area. Of the eleven, theresearchers noted three (two homes and one barn) as having the potentialto be listed on the National register of Historic Places. Built in 1897, theIvy House at 75 th Avenue and McDowell served as home to the firstwoman in the Arizona Territorial Legislature; it has since beendemolished. The Evans Barn on 67 th Avenue between McDowell andVan Buren was determined to be eligible under criterion C as an earlymodel of barn construction in Phoenix, of which few examples remain.In 1977, the Brooks House, at 334B North 75 th Avenue, a Bungalowfarmhouse,was also determined to be eligible for the National Registerof Historic Places.DIBBLE & ASSOCIATES 53 DURANGO ADMPDATA COLLECTION REPORT