Visiting Pinnacle Peak Village in 1977, Scottsdale, Arizona

Yesterday one of my top history adventurers was kind enough to give me some 1970s magazines that his mom was getting rid of, and what really caught my eye were the ads, especially this one from 1977, for Pinnacle Peak Village in Scottsdale. I thought that you might enjoy taking a closer look, and and maybe give me your opinion. Like the ad says, "for a certain few. You know who you are."

By the way, if you live there, or visit there, and can tell by the mountains exactly where the photo at the top of this post was taken, please tell me. Hopefully the spaces are still that wide open - I think they are, that was the idea. 

Here's an architectural rendering of the Plaza de Alamos. They call it an old-style Spanish-Western village look, which is actually Mission Revival, which a lot of Scottsdale buildings used at that time.

1977 architectural rendering

But this is what really caught my eye about the ad - the "old-time" general store complete with antiques, soda fountain, and "creaking" wooden floor. Really? I guess they were really going for an old-timey theme there. A creaking floor?

"Creaking" wooden floor

And here's a map to get there. Note the 602 prefix, which you didn't need to use if you were anywhere in Arizona back then. They must have figured that out-of-state buyers would be interested, and would pay for a long-distance call. Long distance calls cost money in those days! Well, they were marketing to wealthy people!

Location of the sales office of Pinnacle Peak Land Company in 1977.

Really not much else for me to say except that it would have been a good investment in 1977. Of course, nobody knows whether something is a good investment at the time or not, including HUD, so I probably wouldn't have invested (not that I ever had the money!).


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