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    Paradise Valley Architecture
    Paradise Valley Architecture
    Paradise Valley Architecture
    Ebook200 pages2 hours

    Paradise Valley Architecture

    By Douglas B. Sydnor

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    Three surveyors in the late 19th century were so attracted to the area s desert beauty that they named it the Paradise Valley. Starting in the 1920s, adobe homes were constructed in various revival styles. In 1936, the Camelback Inn resort set a high-quality standard with an inviting and relaxed character. Other guest lodges arrived, including the Hermosa Inn and the El Chorro Lodge. The 1950s brought more luxurious resorts, including the Paradise Valley Racquet Club and the Mountain Shadows Resort. With the threat of Phoenix or Scottsdale annexing the area, the citizens started debating incorporation in 1949 and were successful in 1961. Churches, schools, town facilities, and single-family homes followed. Numerous town ordinances were adopted to preserve a quiet, desert lifestyle such as burying all utilities, restrictive zoning, and hillside preservation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 3, 2013
    ISBN9781439643433
    Paradise Valley Architecture
    Author

    Douglas B. Sydnor

    Author Douglas B. Sydnor is an architect and civic leader in the Paradise Valley area. He has authored Images of America: Scottsdale Architecture and Plugger: The Architecture of Reginald Sydnor and served on the Scottsdale Historic Preservation Commission and the library board, among others. Sydnor partnered with the Central Arizona Architectural Foundation to compile this book with images from the Town of Paradise Valley Historical Committee, Scottsdale Historical Society, architects� archives, and private collections.

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      Book preview

      Paradise Valley Architecture - Douglas B. Sydnor

      history.

      INTRODUCTION

      Those who know the town of Paradise Valley as one of the most affluent zip codes (85253) in the United States, and home to celebrities and captains of industry, find it difficult to make the mental jump back in time to when the Paradise Valley was an open desert landscape where cattle and sheep grazed during the early 1900s. Let us explore the natural forces, decisive moments, and mindset that created this desirable desert community with open space, magnificent vistas, and a quiet rural lifestyle in the middle of an urban metropolis.

      The geology of the area is quite old, and includes a metamorphic type of granite rock called schist. The mountain ranges are relatively young, formed about 14 million years ago as the earth’s crust was stretched in the northeast to southwest direction, elevating the mountains and lowering the basins between them. Paradise Valley is in the basin between Camelback Mountain to the south and Mummy Mountain to the north. It is therefore spatially defined by some of nature’s most profound architecture—mountains. Camelback Mountain continues to be quite dramatic, with a profile resembling a camel; the west end camel head has very sculptural forms, strong shadows, and a coloration that is ever-changing as the sun sets to the west.

      Paradise Valley was originally a more remote location northeast of Phoenix, but Phoenix evolved into a large sprawling city, the sixth largest in the United States. East of the community is Scottsdale, a former farming community that now has a population of about 215,000. Scottsdale incorporated in 1951, or 10 years earlier than the Town of Paradise Valley. Phoenix and Scottsdale grew quickly with development and within close reach of Paradise Valley. With the threat of annexations and the risk of them bringing more government, more taxes, and not respecting the open desert environment, the residents debated incorporation starting in 1949; they were eventually successful in 1961. Incorporation enabled this new municipality to control its destiny, while addressing various infrastructure improvements.

      Since the 1940s, Paradise Valley has had a consistent commitment to respecting and maintaining the aesthetics of the lower Sonoran Desert and has evolved into a mostly private enclave within the Phoenix metropolitan area for the educated, wealthy, culturally savvy, and well-traveled.

      Paradise Valley Architecture focuses on the primary building types found within the community. Within each type, a wide range of architectural characters are featured, from the revival styles as Spanish Colonial, Pueblo, Mission, and Tuscan to more contemporary approaches as Mid-century Ranch, Organic, International, and Post Modern. Along with the specific styles, building forms, structural expression, and materials are also described.

      The architecture of Paradise Valley parallels and expresses the town’s history, leadership, priorities, and a community-wide vision for a more quiet, relaxed, and desert-rural lifestyle.

      CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN, C. 1940S. The north side of Camelback Mountain is in the distance with Camelback Inn in the foreground. The view captures the open desert wilderness with minimal development throughout Paradise Valley. (Scottsdale Public Library.)

      One

      EARLY SETTLEMENT:

      1890–1930

      In the early 1900s, cattle grazed the land that would later belong to the Town of Paradise Valley. Cattle were found east of Mummy Mountain and south to Camelback Mountain. In 1877, the US Congress passed the Desert Land Claim Act, which encouraged economic development of the arid and semiarid public lands of the western states, including the Paradise Valley area. This area was visited in the 1890s by Sam Symonds, Proper D. Parker, and Augustus C. Sheldon, three surveyors with the Rio Verde Canal Company. They were so impressed with the lush desert beauty that it was named the Paradise Valley. The company invited investors to build a canal system to irrigate the area for farming and ranches, but the canal was never completed, thus development was slow to occur.

      In the 1920s, a few custom residences started to arrive, particularly in the eastern foothills of Camelback Mountain. Homes such as the 1924 Donald Kellogg residence and 1929 Estribo were followed by the 1930s Duncan MacDonald, Edward Jones, Mildred Pringle, and Henry Wick residences. Most all of them were of plastered adobe construction and wood-framed roofs, and were of a Mission, Pueblo, or Spanish Colonial Revival style.

      In the 1930s, Duncan MacDonald envisioned a different dream than farming, one that was ahead of its time. Someday this area will be filled with beautiful homes, he told his children. He built a home at the northwest corner of Invergordon Road and McDonald Drive.

      Some early homes and schools were converted to guest lodges, including the 1930 Hermosa Lodge, 1934 El Chorro Lodge, and the 1940s Schildman Residence, which became the Desert Lodge. A series of desert guest ranches arrived in the 1940s along East Lincoln Drive and Invergordon Road. Ranch names captured the western ambiance: Diamond Lazy K, Sun ’N Sage, Casa Verde, Desert Lark, and Yellow Boot.

      Early settlements in this area epitomized the relaxed rural western environment; during the coming decades, residents strived to retain this character.

      AERIAL, C. 1940S. This view is looking north of Lincoln Drive and along Tatum Boulevard at the future site of the Paradise Valley Country Club and golf course. (Scottsdale Historical Society.)

      CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN. In 1906, it was named Camelsback by the US Geological Survey. During the 1950s and 1960s, pressure was exerted to develop Camelback Mountain, including a proposed restaurant at the top of the camel’s hump to be accessed by a cable car system. Community leadership rallied to purchase Camelback Mountain for $500,000, including over 1,300 individual donations, with the balance of about $233,000 allocated by the US government. (Paradise Valley United Methodist Church.)

      CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN. The north side of Camelback Mountain defines the southern edge of Paradise Valley. Development and custom residences arrived on the northern slopes. Homes had solid walls facing the more severe southern sun, while windows typically framed the distant valley views to

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