Garfield Historic District

Generally bounded by Roosevelt, Van Buren, Seventh and 16th streets.
Historically Recognized:
April 1989 (as Victoria Place Historic District)
December 2001 (as Dennis Addition Historic District)
December 2002 (as Garfield Place Historic District)
District consolidation, expansion and name change: February 2005
Boundary Adjustment November 2005
(Period of Significance: 1883-1942)

View Larger Map

MORE HISTORY

Garfield Neighborhood is where you can still enjoy an affordable urban lifestyle – without the commute.  It is one of the few neighborhoods in walking distance to downtown events – whether your interests are in art, music, sports, theatre, museums, or politics.

The Garfield Historic District is a large, densely developed neighborhood whose resources reflect a significant span of Phoenix’s early residential development dating from the city’s late 19th and early 20th century expansion beyond its original townsite boundaries, through the boom years of the 1910s, 1920s, and into the period leading up to and following World War II. The district lies just northeast of the original Phoenix city limits and its current downtown core. It stretches from 7th Street on the west to 16th Street on the east, and from Van Buren Street on the south to Roosevelt St. on the north.

The district is comprised of numerous subdivisions, the first of which was the Dennis Addition, platted in 1883 from farm land owned by John T. Dennis. Little construction took place in the Dennis Addition in the 19th century, but the arrival of a streetcar line through the tract in 1895 inspired considerable growth that established distinctive patterns including street layout, lot size and configuration, and building orientation.  Dennis invested in the new streetcar line to serve his subdivision, thus assuring potential homeowners of transportation to and from the downtown core. Reliable transportation increased land sales in the Dennis Addition and the neighborhood developed as a typical streetcar suburb, with residential construction sited within walking distance of the streetcar and small scale commercial development at stops where passengers could shop for staples before heading home in the district. Because it retains its original street layout, lot size and configuration, setback, size, scale, and early housing stock to a large degree, the Garfield Historic District is a good example of an early Street Car Subdivision (1887-1925) in Phoenix.

The district developed as a tpical Streetcar Subdivision and scores of pyramidal cottages, Craftsman influenced bungalows, and Period Revival style houses appeared along the streets in the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, and increasingly in the immediate postwar period, Early/Transitional Ranch style houses added to the district’s historic fabric. More recently, the Garfield Historic District has experienced some redevelopment but most of the new houses respect the size, scale, massing, and, in some cases, design, of their neighbors. Streetscapes are remarkably consistent throughout the district, characterized by relatively small, one-story houses of similar size, setback, massing, materials and ornament.

Information courtesy of www.garfieldorganization.com and the National Register of Historic Places,  Department of the Interior

Garfield If you have more info, please email rick@lcmhomegroup.com