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Glendale City

Glendale City Hall is located at 5850 West Glendale Avenue, Glendale AZ 85301; phone: 623-930-2252.

Beginnings [1]

Early Settlement, 1880-1890

  • Construction of the Arizona Canal enabled agricultural development northwest of Phoenix
  • Desert Lands Act of 1879 opened irrigable lands in the Salt River Valley to homesteading.
  • Promotional efforts of Phoenix capitalist and land developer W. J. Murphy.
  • "Colonization" of Glendale/Peoria area with ranches by settlers from around Chicago.
  • Construction of Grand Avenue in 1888 from Phoenix to Peoria (through Glendale site).

Town site Development, 1891-1906

  • Establishment of the "Temperance Colony of Glendale" by B. A. Hadsell and members of the Church of the Bretheren from Illinois.
  • Plating of the Glendale Town site in November 1892.
  • Completion of the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway in 1895 through Glendale.
  • Flood of 1895 followed by three years of drought devastated Glendale farmers.

Development Trends, 1907-1929

  • Completion of Roosevelt Dam in 1910 assured a stable irrigation water supply.
  • First building boom of housing and businesses for new agricultural workers.
  • Town of Glendale incorporated 18 June 1910 with a population of 1,000.
  • Extension to Glendale of Phoenix Street Railway System operated 1911-1928.
  • Russian colonists arrived in 1911 to cultivate sugar beets.
  • Catlin Court residential subdivision platted in 1915 as first cohesive neighborhood.
  • Cotton boom during WW-I collapsed in postwar depression.

Depression and the New Deal, 1930-1940

  • Effects of depression were most severe in Glendale in 1931-1933.
  • New Deal programs help housing and farming.

World War-II and the Postwar Boom, 1941-1950

  • Thunderbird Field and Luke Field established by U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941.
  • Aluminum defense plant established south of Glendale.
  • American Institute of Foreign Trade established at former Thunderbird Field in 1946.
  • Airmen and defense workers settle in Glendale after WW-II.
  1. City of Glendale Historic Preservation Commission, Historic Preservation Plan for the City of Glendale Arizona, Final Report, 2003
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