Phoenix went from Depression to a recovery earlier than most places thanks to abundant New Deal investments. Have a look in the photo time machine (click for a larger image):
The privately funded Agua Fria River Project, shown in this 1932 map, was derailed by the Great Depression. It sought to bring water to cultivate land all the way to the White Tank Mountains.
One part of the Agua Fria Project survived as the "Frog Tanks Dam," under construction in 1926. The dam, later the Old Waddell Dam, was located on the Agua Fria River northwest of Phoenix. William Beardsley, a champion of the project, hired civil engineer Carl Pleasant to design the dam. Today, the dam has been replaced by a higher, longer structure that holds back a larger Lake Pleasant as part of the Central Arizona Project (McCulloch Bros.Collection/ASU Archives)
Thomas and Grand Avenue in the 1930s, the Alhambra Garage and a nearby grocery, with a Holsum Bakery truck making a delivery (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Boehmer's Cut-Rate Drugs in the Monihon Building at First Avenue and Washington Street in 1937. My fictional private investigator Gene Hammons has his office in this location (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Looking over fields and groves at Camelback Mountain.
Looking north on Central Avenue toward Madison Street in 1939. Soon work would begin on an underpass beneath the railroad tracks (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Another view looking south on Central. On the right is the Southern Pacific Railroad freight station (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Central south of Monroe Street looking at the Heard Building, Western Business College, and Donofrio's Flowers (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Here's the same spot showing radio towers atop the Heard Building. The Arizona Republic, Phoenix Gazette, and KTAR (Keep Taking the Arizona Republic; initially "Arizona Republican") were based there (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
The view from the balcony of the Hotel Luhrs as the Luhrs Building and Luhrs Tower, looking southwest on Jefferson Street at Central (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
The El Zariba Shrine Masonic Temple. It was turned into the Mining and Mineral Museum (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Civilian Conservation Corps members working to restore Pueblo Grande take a swim in the Grand Canal, 1937 (Library of Congress).
Camelback Farms was a project of the New Deal Farm Security Administration, seeking to give migrant farmers a place to stay and till the land (Library of Congress).
The Jaycees Rodeo of Rodeos Parade comes down Central in 1937. The event was revived as prosperity returned (Library of Congress).
Shady Monroe Street at Third Avenue looking east toward First Baptist Church, left (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
The old Phoenix Municipal Stadium at Second Street and Mohave (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Papago Park and horse riders, 1930 (Library of Congress).
Phoenix Motor Co., 401 W. Van Buren Street, in 1939 (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Van Buren and Central, with the Professional Building center-left (Library of Congress).
The state capitol building (Library of Congress).
It's 1937 and the central Post Office had been completed, south of the Hotel Westward Ho at Central and Fillmore, the traditional northern boundary of downtown (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Children picking onions in a field near Phoenix, 1937. Agriculture was the mainstay of the local economy (Library of Congress).
A tomato field south of Camelback Mountain (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Walking through a vegetable field in 1939 (Library of Congress).
The Fleming Building on the northwest corner at First Avenue and Washington. It was torn down for an International-style skyscraper for First National Bank of Arizona, then Wells Fargo, now offices for the city (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
The City-County Building at night, surrounded by shade trees and grass, 1930.
A block south, the Luhrs Tower is also lighted up (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
The Mountain Bell Telephone building at Adams and Third Avenue (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
The YMCA in the "government block" at First Avenue and Van Buren,
The Wrigley Mansion in the 1930s (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Snow in 1937 at a new house in Palmcroft (Courtesy of Jon Rosenthal).
A shot from up north, FDR visits the Greenway Ranch near Williams with Sen. Carl Hayden, standing on the right, and other dignitaries, 1932.
RELATED: Phoenix 101: The thirties.
———————————————————————————
My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.
Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.
Excellent.
This is a very timely post, as far as I’m concerned. I just started reading your book, City of Dark Corners, which is set in the ’30s.
Just a bit into the novel, and I was reminded of a question that first popped into my mind a while back: Does anyone know if Marley Park (the housing development in Surprise, Arizona) is named after the notorious Kemper Marley?