The model homes of Maryvale


If you're a time-traveler, like me, you like to imagine neighborhoods when they were brand new, especially the model homes. And I often wonder if people who are living in the houses that were built decades ago have any idea that there was a time when people gasped with astonishment at the beauty and modernity of their particular home.

There are a lot of neighborhoods in the Phoenix area, and usually it's just about impossible to figure out where the models homes were, but it's a good challenge. In my little neighborhood, in Glendale, I figured out where the model homes are, which are closer to the main street, considerably larger than most of the homes that were built around it, and have fancier roofs (an option that I guess no one in the neighborhood wanted to pay for!). I like trying to figure this stuff out, and going time-traveling, or history adventuring, as I call it.

Now waitaminute here, before you go exploring and looking for model homes, remember that there are people living in them that have no idea what you are looking at. Please resist the temptation to get out of your car, look around, and please don't even think about taking a photo of someone's house!

In the photo above you can see one of the Model homes of Maryvale in the 1960s. It was one of John F. Long's Candlelight Homes. By the way, that's the Maryvale Golf Course across the street there, which is as of this writing being restored by Grand Canyon University, who will use it as their home golf course.

By the way, I have friends who grew up in Maryvale. Thank you for history adventuring with me. The more I do it, the more I learn, and the more I love living in Phoenix.

The Greatest Home Show on Earth, Maryvale.

John F. Long (at left) with Maryvale spokesman Ronald Reagan (before he became President)

Maryvale Shopping City in the 1960s

If you liked this article, and would like to see more in the future, please consider becoming a patron of History Adventuring on Patreon. If you're already a patron, thank you! Your pledge makes this happen!

 Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

  1. Truman BurbankDecember 1, 2015 at 10:53 AM

    Hi, I think I found the other cul-de-sac, could it be at 47th Drive and Indian School Rd??? 4009 N. 47th Drive?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CJDOctober 7, 2021 at 6:07 PM

      J Long models from the 50’s are located on a cul-de-sac at 60th Drive and Orange in the Maryvale area of Phoenix.

      Delete
    2. Truman BurbankOctober 7, 2021 at 10:34 PM

      Thanks.. another PeGeYe clue too... great.

      Delete
    3. UnknownDecember 2, 2021 at 2:47 PM

      Truman, I think you are correct. 47th Dr & Indian School. I had to look for it!

      Delete
  2. ArizonaWillJune 30, 2019 at 10:02 PM

    Sadly, in Phoenix it seems that no one keeps up the older subdivisions. They often seem to be in poor condition and any privacy walls are ugly grey bricks often with paint splotches in some other color to wipe out some gang symbol. It seems the only older homes that are kept up were intended for the wealthy. There are some really junky 50's and 60's subdivisions in this town. But I suppose they are necessary for people who can't afford better. The sad part is just that there is no reason such homes can't be kept up, but they often look seedy and run down. Meanwhile, in Europe, people are living in homes hundreds of years old.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ArizonaWillJune 30, 2019 at 10:03 PM

    I have to confess that having been born in San Francisco and living in the Bay Area until retirement, I find many areas in Phoenix to be downright UGLY.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ArizonaWillJune 30, 2019 at 10:07 PM

    There are a lot of beautiful residential areas in Central Phoenix where the classic sprawling ranch style homes of the late 50's and 60's are meticulously maintained. The problem is that living in such neighborhoods must be perilous because every time I go down there, which is often, I see street people just walking the streets in a daze - the typical forgotten people you see in the core of any large city - mentally or drug/alcohol addled or merely lost in space. I am so sorry for all of them, but can you imagine owning a home in central Phoenix with these "zombies" walking around? I saw one fellow urinating on the lawn of one of these well kept homes. I am surprised some neighborhoods haven't chipped in to put up walls with guard gates.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more