In 1880, the land that is now Glendale was nothing more than empty desert.
But in 1882, William J. Murphy joined three Arizona builders, M.W. Kales,
William A. Hancock and Clark Churchill, to lead the Arizona Canal Co. project,
which would bring water to the desert land by 1885.
In 1888, Murphy, with the help of others, constructed the diagonal Grand
Avenue. And on February 27, 1892, the first residential area of the city began
to take shape. The Glendale town site began to take shape soon after, and the
first school, the Glendale Grammar School, was built in 1895. Its opening
drew people from all over the Valley. In the mid-1890s, Glendale became the
pathway for a line of the Santa Fe Railroad, linking the Valley to Prescott and
northern Arizona. The railroad allowed Glendale settlers to transport goods
to the north and easily receive building materials.
More and more families began to settle in Glendale after the turn of the century.
Over the years, Glendale grew to become one of the most culturally diverse cities in the Valley. The city owes much of its heritage to early Hispanic settlers as
well as Japanese and Russians who moved to Glendale from
California.
Glendale’s Beet Sugar Factory, whose structure still stands today just southeast
of Glendale’s downtown, was instrumental in the city’s early economic success.
Farms and orchards, like the 640-acre Sahuaro Ranch, continued to take off
through the early 1900s.
Then World War I brought a new surge of energy into Glendale, with cotton
prices reaching $2 a pound and a high demand for food, which kept farmers
busy. There was soon a need for more housing, and today’s Catlin Court was
born from 1915 to about 1930. Most of these homes are still standing and on
the National Register of Historic Places.
World War II brought the birth of Thunderbird Field to train civilian pilots for
the Army and in 1941, the Army began working on a larger base 10 miles west
of Glendale. Built for $4.5 million, Luke Field (now Luke Air Force Base) was
named for the first pilot to receive a Medal of Honor, Lt. Frank Luke Jr.
Thunderbird Field would later become the Thunderbird American Graduate
School for International Management.
The military and college presence sparked a need for utilities, parks, schools
and streets. City officials in the 1960s began to play catch up with the
population, and over the next 40 years, the city added an operations center,
landfill, water treatment plant, sewage plants, libraries, parks, public safety
facilities, an airport, a city hall and a civic center.
READ more about Glendale's History and Growth...