Why Glendale Avenue becomes Lincoln Drive in Phoenix, Arizona


If you drive around much in the Phoenix, Arizona area, you become aware of the "becomes". For example, Dunlap becomes Olive here in Glendale. But my favorite "become" is when Glendale Avenue becomes Lincoln Drive. To understand this, you have to know about a man named John C. Lincoln, the Camelback Inn, and a temperance colony from 1892 named Glendale.

Looking north up 58th Drive (1st Avenue then) from Grand Avenue at Glendale, Arizona

A temperance colony is a group of people who have decided to live where intoxicating beverages are not sold. And while the idea of a temperance colony didn't last, the community of Glendale did. And as it thrived and grew, the road to it, from Central Avenue, was named Glendale Avenue.

Camelback Inn in the 1930s. The road to it, which was from Scottsdale Road, was named after John C. Lincoln.

In the 1930s, way on the east side of the valley, a wealthy entrepreneur named John C. Lincoln (yep, the same guy who built the hospital in Sunnyslope) built a resort called the Camelback Inn. The road to it was from Scottsdale Road, and since he paid for it, he named the road after himself. Actually, it was kind of just a long driveway. A very long driveway.

John C. Lincoln

No one really thought that these two roads would ever connect. After all, they ended in a "dead end" at the Phoenix Mountains. But in the 1960s, they did.

And when the two roads connected up, neither side wanted to take the name of the other side. So that's why it "becomes".
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Comments

  1. Paul SandersAugust 26, 2019 at 9:24 PM

    I always thought the name change was because the road swings out of alignment to the south where Lincoln begins.

    ReplyDelete
  2. arlacyAugust 27, 2019 at 1:06 PM

    I had heard that Wm. Wrigley donated the land to Phoenix so that the final connection of Lincoln and Glendale could happen. The pink sidewalks were a marvel to us kids.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 27, 2019 at 6:49 PM

    John C Lincoln was also the inventor of the electric arc-welder.

    ReplyDelete

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