Margarita Place
Historical District Phoenix Information, Map
and Homes For Sale
On September 17,
1881, Eugene Estabrook acquired a cash entry patent (#117) for
the entire NW quarter of Section 31, Township 2 North, Range 3
East. Margarita Place is within the northeast quarter of the
northwest quarter of Section 31. Estabrook opted not to
homestead the area, but to pay the government directly for the
land, in order to avoid the restrictions and obligations that
homesteading required. According to a series of
advertisements about the property, at some point J.C. Adams
acquired the land that Margarita Place is situated on. The J.C.
Adams who owned this land may have been the same J.C. Adams who
arrived in Phoenix from Chicago and constructed the Hotel Adams,
“a meeting place for the prominent,” (Luckingham 1989). In 1927,
the area that is now Margarita Place was platted, surveyed and
subdivided by Harry Jones, an engineer.
Mary R. Lent became the owner of the property on February 24,
1927, and named it Margarita Place. Mary Kent opted to sell the
subdivided land auction style, and as such sold the lots to
potential builders, homebuyers and architects. The result of
this was that many of the homes in the neighborhood were
constructed by a number of different builders, instead of by one
“community builder.”
The exception to this is the group of homes that were built
in and right around 1942. The Arizona Housing Corporation and
the Womack Brothers constructed all these homes. Although there
is no record of the Arizona Housing Corporation either in the
Arizona Corporation Commission Records, nor in the State
Archives, one might draw the conclusion that this was an
organization based on federal funding for war time housing,
since there was a virtual ban on all non-war-related housing
from approximately 1941 to 1945.Theoccupations held by the
residents of these homes tended towards possible wartime
occupations, and included an engineer, a mechanic, a
construction superintendent, a physician and a life insurance
agent.
Amenities were widely advertised for Margarita Place
neighborhood, including electricity, graded streets, pressured
water and shaded areas. Because there were many subdivisions
platted around the same time as Margarita Place, including
Medlock Place at 3rd and Central avenues, Pleasant Place, at
19th and Roosevelt, and Washington Park, between Washington,
Madison and 24th, subdividers needed to remain competitive by
offering as many modern conveniences as possible. Margarita
Place, as well as other subdivisions, was also ideally located
in what was at that time, a purely residential part of the city.
The first two homes to be built in the neighborhood were
constructed in 1931. Located at 1518 West Edgemont Avenue and
1521 West Edgemont Avenue, both are Tudor/Elizabethan Revival
Style. W.A. Roberts, manager of the Phoenix Rubber Company, was
the first owner of the home at 1518 West Edgemont Avenue. R.H.
Norton was the original owner of the latter home. By 1936, only
two other homes had been built, one, a Mission Revival home
constructed at 1518 West Windsor Avenue, the other a Spanish
Colonial Revival home constructed at 1539 West Edgemont. By
1942, the effects of the Federal Housing Administration were
apparent in the Margarita Place subdivision. In that year alone,
ten new houses were constructed, eight of them in the
Transitional/Early Ranch style. Since the FHA emphasized the
construction of groups of homes, rather than singular homes, it
makes sense that a number of homes in the same style would be
built in the same year.
The growth of
Margarita Place is consistent with those of the
nation and Phoenix itself. The subdivision was originally
platted to provide a quiet setting for well-to-do citizens, but
as the population boomed along with war-time industry, more
homes were needed. Therefore, ten homes were added to the
Margarita Place subdivision in the war era, even though there
was a hold on building and the corresponding materials. New Deal
funding, such as that from the Works Progress Administration was
still available for developers at this time, and perhaps this is
the reason that these homes could be built. In the post-war
period, more houses were added to Margarita Place. This is
consistent with the rapid growth of Phoenix at this time. A
majority of the homes built at this time were variations on the
easily constructed ranch house.
Information, maps and photographs
provided courtesy: Historic Preservation Office of the City of
Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department
200 West Washington Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85003
(602) 261-8699
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Laura Boyajian Mobile: 602.400.0008
HistoricCentralPhoenix@cox.net
HomeSmart, LLC
5225 N. Central Ave. #104
Phoenix, AZ 85012 (602)
400.0008
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