History of the F. Q.
Story Neighborhood
The
F.Q.
Story Historic District (Story F.Q.) is a
neighborhood 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 1920's through
the late 1940's. A variety of architectural styles,
including Spanish Colonial Revival, English Tudor,
Craftsman bungalows as well as transitional ranch
are represented within the neighborhood.
Francis Quarles Story
In 1887, Francis Quarles Story, a
Boston wool merchant whose ill health had taken him
to California a decade before, purchased the acreage
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 1880's, investing in land and promoting
both agricultural and town site development.
Although he never lived in Phoenix, Story was
involved in numerous projects, such as the design
and construction of the 100 foot wide Grand Avenue
thoroughfare in 1887 and the subsequent building of
its streetcar line. In the early 1900's, 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 parcel, which would
become the Story neighborhood, he sold the entire
parcel to the Phoenix firm of Jordan, Grace and
Phelps in 1919.
Francis
Quarles Story, for whom the neighborhood was named,
was involved in numerous developments in early
Phoenix, including the construction of Grand Avenue
in 1887 and its subsequent streetcar line. He is
also credited with the advertising campaign which
made the Sunkist Orange famous.
In 1920,
when development of the F.Q. Story neighborhood
began, Phoenix had a population of 29,000. It was
advertised as a streetcar suburb, being close to the
Grand Avenue and Kenilworth carlines. The first
houses were clustered by the streetcar line at the
eastern edge of the neighborhood. As building
proceeded westward and the auto became more common,
houses began to feature detached garages and porte
cocheres.
The last development phase began in 1927,
encompassing eighty acres from 11th to 15th Avenues,
between McDowell Road and Roosevelt Street.
Development hit its peak in 1930 with the
construction of 133 new houses, only to falter as
the Depression hit Phoenix. Construction declined,
but by 1938, approximately seventy-five percent of
the F.Q. Story Addition had been completed.
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 carlines. As in other
developments oriented to the streetcar, 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 porte coheres appeared. Their presence
reflects the growing impact of the automobile on
architecture and suburban American life by the mid
1920's.
When subdivision of the F.Q. Story Addition
began, it was described in advertisements in the
Arizona Republican in March of 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 floodway 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 of
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
eighty acres from 11th to I 5th Avenues, between
McDowell Road and Roosevelt Street. At $3000 to
$4000, building restrictions were slightly lower
here and duplexes 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 Depression hit Phoenix.
Construction declined, but by 1938, approximately
seventy-five percent of the F.Q. Story Addition
had been developed.
Typical Phoenix Neighborhood
Men of wealth and influence, who bought large
blocks of land for resale, never intending to live
in the area, initiated 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 11 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 Bungalow
style prevailed in the eastern sections developed in
the early 1920's. Period Revival houses - those that
use the form and ornamentation of earlier
architectural styles prevailed by the mid 1920's.
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 Moderne, 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 stuccoes
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.
Significance of the F.Q. Story Neighborhood
Today, as in the past, the F.Q. Story Historic
District is a thriving neighborhood
characterized by diversity. Historically, it remains
an important expression of the people and the
building practices that established Phoenix as a
progressive twentieth century city. The form of the
neighborhood, the placement and arrangement of the
buildings, and its distinctive landscaping all
contribute to a character that reflects the
economies, technology and popular tastes of a bygone
era. Story is architecturally important because it
displays a wide range of historic styles from the
1920's and 30's that illustrate the changing
architectural trends of the period.
LIFE ON LYNWOOD
Like
many house hunters, Margaret and Preston Brown
ranked the local school high on their list of
priorities when choosing a home. So when they fell
in love with Kenilworth Elementary, it was an easy
step to buy a house on Lynwood Street.
That was
68 years ago. The Browns were the second residents
of the imposing house at 920 W. Lynwood Street,
buying it from the Snell family for $5,200.
Margaret
Brown recalled that the house was painted cream when
she and her husband moved in during the summer of
1935. Just off the dining room was a screened-in
room with a cement floor. Margaret later hired Edna
Green, who she said was THE designer of the time, to
help her with house renovations. One of those
touches included installing French doors from the
dining room to the screened-in patio.
The
house came with a one-car garage and, typical for
the times, no cooling save for a 10-inch fan.
Lynwood Street in the mid-1930s was full: Every lot
had a house on it, she said.
Margaret
and Preston lived in Story for three years, until
their growing family prompted them to look for a
larger house. Preston Brown, an obstetrician and
gynecologist, was president of the Arizona Medical
Society and served on the building committee for St.
Joseph's hospital. He also was a Phoenix City
Council member (long before the district system,
Story had its own representative!)
Margaret
recalls that dining in was common in the mid-1930s,
although she also remembers lots of parties being
thrown at the Westward Ho. Popular groceries were
the Bayless market on Central Avenue as well as
Cobbs Market, also on Central near Willetta.
She
shopped at the downtown department stores:
Goldwater's, Korrick's, Porter's and Switzer's. By
the time the couple's third child arrived in 1938,
the Browns were looking for bigger quarters. They
traded their Lynwood Street house for a two-story,
five-bedroom home in the Alvarado neighborhood,
behind what is now the Phoenix Art Museum. Amy and
Harry Trittle moved into 920, completing the swap.
Margaret Brown still lives in Phoenix, and granted
this interview to Story's Historic Committee, which
is researching the early days of the neighborhood.
