F. Q. Story Neighborhood Historic District
Encyclopedia
The F. Q. Story Neighborhood Historic District is located in central Phoenix, Arizona
, USA. The neighborhood runs from McDowell Road south to Roosevelt Street and from Seventh Avenue west to Grand Avenue. The neighborhood as well as many of the individual houses are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
The F.Q. Story neighborhood consists of 602 homes that were constructed from the late 1920s through the late 1940s. A variety of architectural style
s, including Spanish Colonial Revival, English Tudor, Craftsman bungalows as well as transitional ranch
are represented within the neighborhood.
wool
merchant whose ill health had taken him to California
a decade before, purchased the area that is today the F.Q. Story Historic District. He had settled in Los Angeles County
, studied the cultivation of citrus
, planted orange
groves, and is credited with founding the national advertising campaign that made the Sunkist Orange
famous. Active in many educational and conservation endeavors, F.Q. Story was a director and president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
and a tireless booster of commercial and industrial enterprises in California and Arizona. Story and other prominent southern California landowners expanded into the Salt River Valley
of Arizona in the late 1880s, investing in land and promoting both agricultural and townsite development. Although he never lived in Phoenix, Story was involved in numerous projects, such as the design and construction of the 100 feet (30.5 m) wide Grand Avenue thoroughfare in 1887 and the subsequent building of its streetcar line. In the early 1900s, Story was influential in the founding of the Grand Avenue and University Additions, but their development was disappointing. In spite of having announced in 1910 plans to subdivide the 200 acre (0.809372 km²) parcel, which would become the Story neighborhood, he sold the entire parcel to the Phoenix firm of Jordan, Grace and Phelps in 1919.
When subdivision of the F.Q. Story Addition began, it was described in advertisements in the Arizona Republican in March 1920 as "The Real Estate Event of the Season!" and "The Place, the Thing, and the Time you have been waiting for." Advertising boasted that the developers "expect to sell this entire tract within thirty days." In spite of the hype, only one house was built in all of 1921. This was due to the fact that the area lay directly in the flood way of Cave Creek, which in 1921, inundated the entire western end of the city and put two feet of muddy water on the first floor of the state capitol just a mile to the south. No lives were lost, but property damages were severe and estimated to have exceeded the million-dollar mark.
es were permitted in certain sections.
In July 1927, the developers, Lane-Smith Investment Company, encouraged sales by having A.F. Wasielewski Construction Company construct a "model home" at 1106 West Lynwood, a novel idea for the period. By September, forty more homes had been built. At the same time, the remaining westerly portion of F.Q. Story's land was opened as "West Story" by developers Cowley, Higgins and Delph Company. It was also known as Franklin Addition, named for the new primary school nearby. Building restrictions were more modest still, just $2500 and $2200, which allowed working families to build in the area.
Development hit its peak in 1930 with the construction of 133 new houses, only to falter as the effects of the Great Depression
hit Phoenix. Construction declined, but by 1938, approximately seventy-five percent of the F.Q. Story Addition had been developed.
The people who were first drawn to the neighborhood were considered one of its primary attractions. At one point during its development, the Price & Price Investment Company ran an advertisement listing the names and occupations of nearly all Story Addition property owners in an attempt to encourage sales. Homes were fairly small and, even at their most lavish,
relatively inexpensive in comparison with some of the other emerging Phoenix neighborhoods of this era.
The only building constructed during this time, which remains intact in the neighborhood today, is the Pay'n Takit Market at 7th Avenue and Roosevelt. This small grocery was the twenty-third store opened up by the Pay'n Takit Grocery Company. A Phoenix chain founded in 1917, they promoted the innovative concept of self service or cash and carry." The importance of this early commercial building to the neighborhood is recognized with its individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
style prevailed in the eastern sections developed in the early 1920s. Period Revival
houses - those that use the form and ornamentation of earlier architectural styles - prevailed by the mid 1920s. Spanish Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival homes were the most popular, but examples of other Revival styles, such as English and Norman Cottage, Mediterranean, Pueblo
, Mission
, and Neoclassical
are common. Art Modern, Ranch Style
and Prairie houses
were also scattered through the area.
Spanish Colonial Revival houses take their characteristics from the Southwestern architectural tradition. Identifying features include flat or low-pitched roofs with little or no overhang, red tile
roof shingles, prominent arches over doors, windows and porches, and an asymmetrical stucco
ed facade.
In contrast, Tudor Revival homes draw from the medieval architecture of Europe. These dwellings feature steeply pitched
gabled roofs, and are often ornamented with half timbering
. They also are identifiable by their picturesque massing, multiple pane window groupings and massive brick chimneys.
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, USA. The neighborhood runs from McDowell Road south to Roosevelt Street and from Seventh Avenue west to Grand Avenue. The neighborhood as well as many of the individual houses are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
The F.Q. Story neighborhood consists of 602 homes that were constructed from the late 1920s through the late 1940s. A variety of architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
s, including Spanish Colonial Revival, English Tudor, Craftsman bungalows as well as transitional ranch
Ranch-style house
Ranch-style houses is a domestic architectural style originating in the United States. First built in the 1920s, the ranch style was extremely popular amongst the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s to 1970s...
are represented within the neighborhood.
Francis Quarles Story
In 1887, Francis Quarles Story, a BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
merchant whose ill health had taken him to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
a decade before, purchased the area that is today the F.Q. Story Historic District. He had settled in Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, California
Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...
, studied the cultivation of citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
, planted orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
groves, and is credited with founding the national advertising campaign that made the Sunkist Orange
Sunkist Growers, Incorporated
Sunkist Growers, Incorporated is a citrus grower's non-stock membership cooperative composed of 6,000 members from California and Arizona. It is headquartered in the Sherman Oaks district of Los Angeles.-History:...
famous. Active in many educational and conservation endeavors, F.Q. Story was a director and president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing the interests of more than 235,000 businesses in L.A...
and a tireless booster of commercial and industrial enterprises in California and Arizona. Story and other prominent southern California landowners expanded into the Salt River Valley
Salt River Valley
The Salt River Valley defines an extensive valley on the Salt River in central Arizona, which contains the Phoenix Metropolitan Area.Although this geographic term still identifies the area, the name "Valley of the Sun" popularly replaced the usage starting in the early 1930s for purposes of...
of Arizona in the late 1880s, investing in land and promoting both agricultural and townsite development. Although he never lived in Phoenix, Story was involved in numerous projects, such as the design and construction of the 100 feet (30.5 m) wide Grand Avenue thoroughfare in 1887 and the subsequent building of its streetcar line. In the early 1900s, Story was influential in the founding of the Grand Avenue and University Additions, but their development was disappointing. In spite of having announced in 1910 plans to subdivide the 200 acre (0.809372 km²) parcel, which would become the Story neighborhood, he sold the entire parcel to the Phoenix firm of Jordan, Grace and Phelps in 1919.
Promotion
In 1920, when development of what is now the F.Q. Story Historic District began, Phoenix had a population of 29,000; almost six times what it had been at the turn-of-the-century. Grand Avenue had been built to link central Phoenix with the thriving agricultural communities of Glendale and Peoria. Like the nearby Roosevelt neighborhood, Story was advertised as a streetcar suburb, being close to the Grand Avenue and Kenilworth car lines. As in other developments oriented to the street car, Story was laid out with narrow, deep lots. The streetcar line at the eastern edge of the neighborhood clustered the initial houses. By the middle of the decade, as the automobile became more common, houses located further west began to incorporate detached garages and side-yard port coheres appeared. Their presence reflects the growing impact of the automobile on architecture and suburban American life by the mid 1920s.When subdivision of the F.Q. Story Addition began, it was described in advertisements in the Arizona Republican in March 1920 as "The Real Estate Event of the Season!" and "The Place, the Thing, and the Time you have been waiting for." Advertising boasted that the developers "expect to sell this entire tract within thirty days." In spite of the hype, only one house was built in all of 1921. This was due to the fact that the area lay directly in the flood way of Cave Creek, which in 1921, inundated the entire western end of the city and put two feet of muddy water on the first floor of the state capitol just a mile to the south. No lives were lost, but property damages were severe and estimated to have exceeded the million-dollar mark.
Residential Development
After Cave Creek Dam was completed in 1923, thirteen more homes were built, and in January 1924, the Dwight B. Heard Investment Company reopened the original Story Addition. The newly formed partnership of Lane-Smith opened North Story, and by 1926, a total of 113 homes had been built on streets from Roosevelt and McDowell between 7th and 9th Avenues. Both sections had a requirement that buildings cost a minimum of $5000. The subdivision also had gas and electrical service. Kenilworth School had opened in 1920, and in 1926, Franklin School was built on McDowell at 17th Avenue.Development Accelerates
The last development phase of the Story Addition began in 1927 when "New Story" opened, covering the 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) from 11th to I 5th Avenues, between McDowell Road and Roosevelt Street. At $3000 to $4000, building restrictions were slightly lower here and duplexDuplex
Duplex commonly means double or twofold.It may also refer to:* Duplex , a two-unit apartment building or condominium* Duplex, a common electrical receptacle with two NEMA type 5 plugs* Duplex locomotive, a type of steam locomotive...
es were permitted in certain sections.
In July 1927, the developers, Lane-Smith Investment Company, encouraged sales by having A.F. Wasielewski Construction Company construct a "model home" at 1106 West Lynwood, a novel idea for the period. By September, forty more homes had been built. At the same time, the remaining westerly portion of F.Q. Story's land was opened as "West Story" by developers Cowley, Higgins and Delph Company. It was also known as Franklin Addition, named for the new primary school nearby. Building restrictions were more modest still, just $2500 and $2200, which allowed working families to build in the area.
Development hit its peak in 1930 with the construction of 133 new houses, only to falter as the effects of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
hit Phoenix. Construction declined, but by 1938, approximately seventy-five percent of the F.Q. Story Addition had been developed.
Typical Phoenix Neighborhood
People of wealth and influence, who bought large blocks of land for resale, never intending to live in the area, invested in the F.Q. Story neighborhood as a speculative venture. In its historic period, it was a typical middle class neighborhood. In the eastern sections with the higher building restrictions, the earliest Story residents were mainly of white-collar status professional people such as physicians, lawyers, presidents and owners of small to medium-sized companies. On the west side were government personnel, sales people of all kinds, and a number of contractors who built in the area. All three partners in the realty company of Cowley, Higgins and Delph lived in "West Story," as did a number of O'Malley Lumber Company employees.The people who were first drawn to the neighborhood were considered one of its primary attractions. At one point during its development, the Price & Price Investment Company ran an advertisement listing the names and occupations of nearly all Story Addition property owners in an attempt to encourage sales. Homes were fairly small and, even at their most lavish,
relatively inexpensive in comparison with some of the other emerging Phoenix neighborhoods of this era.
Neighborhood Commercial Activity
The developers of Story Addition in the 1927-28 period also planned for commercial activities in the neighborhood. Commercial buildings were constructed in eight locations. Characteristic of commercial development of the period, these buildings were located on corner lots on McDowell, Roosevelt, and Grand Avenue, the chief thoroughfares.The only building constructed during this time, which remains intact in the neighborhood today, is the Pay'n Takit Market at 7th Avenue and Roosevelt. This small grocery was the twenty-third store opened up by the Pay'n Takit Grocery Company. A Phoenix chain founded in 1917, they promoted the innovative concept of self service or cash and carry." The importance of this early commercial building to the neighborhood is recognized with its individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Architectural Styles
Much of the architectural significance of the F.Q. Story Historic District relates to its representation of the increasing popularity of period styles, which was typical of early twentieth century American residential design. The BungalowBungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
style prevailed in the eastern sections developed in the early 1920s. Period Revival
Revivalism (architecture)
Revivalism in architecture is the use of visual styles that consciously echo the style of a previous architectural era.There were a number of architectural revivalist movements in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries....
houses - those that use the form and ornamentation of earlier architectural styles - prevailed by the mid 1920s. Spanish Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival homes were the most popular, but examples of other Revival styles, such as English and Norman Cottage, Mediterranean, Pueblo
Pueblo Revival Style architecture
The Pueblo Revival style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States which draws its inspiration from the Pueblos and the Spanish missions in New Mexico. The style developed at the turn of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, though it...
, Mission
Mission Revival Style architecture
The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California....
, and Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
are common. Art Modern, Ranch Style
Ranch-style house
Ranch-style houses is a domestic architectural style originating in the United States. First built in the 1920s, the ranch style was extremely popular amongst the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s to 1970s...
and Prairie houses
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
were also scattered through the area.
Spanish Colonial Revival houses take their characteristics from the Southwestern architectural tradition. Identifying features include flat or low-pitched roofs with little or no overhang, red tile
Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
roof shingles, prominent arches over doors, windows and porches, and an asymmetrical stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed facade.
In contrast, Tudor Revival homes draw from the medieval architecture of Europe. These dwellings feature steeply pitched
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
gabled roofs, and are often ornamented with half timbering
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
. They also are identifiable by their picturesque massing, multiple pane window groupings and massive brick chimneys.