Encanto Vista Historic District Phoenix AZ

Bounded by Windsor Avenue, Encanto Boulevard, Seventh and Eighth Avenues.

Period of Significance: 1943-1953

Encanto Vista Historic District is a suburban neighborhood located approximately two miles north/northwest of downtown Phoenix. Situated along the eastern edge of Encanto Park Golf Course, Encanto Vista is a narrow, roughly rectangular neighborhood one block from east to west and six blocks from north to south. The district encompasses a single residential subdivision platted in 1943. It is approximately 25 acres in size and contains 79 single family houses built between 1945 and 1959. The houses in Encanto Vista are predominately large custom-built Ranch Style houses. Of the 79 houses, 68 (86%) are considered contributing resources and 11 (14%) are noncontributing.

The boundaries of the National Register district correspond to the boundaries of a Phoenix local historic district with the same name. Three of Encanto Vista’s boundaries are streets, and a golf course creates the fourth boundary. Encanto Park is a large municipal park containing two nine-hole golf courses, an amusement park, and a small lake. It is located immediately adjacent to Encanto Vista, stretching the entire length of the district and creating its western boundary. Short sections of 8th Avenue appear in the neighborhood, running alongside the golf course. Twelve of the houses in the district have lots that look directly onto the golf course, and none of the houses are further than one block away from it. The district’s eastern boundary is 7th Avenue, a six-lane north-south thoroughfare. For most of its length 7th Avenue abuts residential neighborhoods on both sides; however, where it intersects with major east-west thoroughfares it has commercial anchors. Thomas Road is one such intersection, and is located two blocks north of the district. The southern boundary of the district is Encanto Boulevard, a two-lane east-west road that begins to curve south slightly as it nears the golf course and park. Only the houses on the north side of Encanto Boulevard are included in the district. Across Encanto Boulevard to the south is another residential neighborhood, the Encanto-Palmcroft Historic District (National Register, 1987). The northern boundary of Encanto Vista is Windsor Avenue, a cul-de-sac. Only the houses on the south side of Windsor Avenue are in the district. On the north side of Windsor are two houses and a church, the latter of which is located at the corner of 7th Avenue and is largely surrounded by a parking lot. North and northwest of Encanto Vista is the Encanto Manor Historic District, which runs along the north side of the golf course.

The streets in Encanto Vista are laid out in an unusual horseshoe pattern which maximizes the number of lots in the neighborhood but creates separate “courts” that are somewhat isolated from one another. With the exception of the cul-de-sac at Windsor Avenue, the streets in Encanto Vista are paired, with the streets in each pair easily accessible to one another but not to the rest of the neighborhood. South of Windsor, Cambridge Avenue enters the district from 7th Avenue, runs west for one block, then terminates at 8th Avenue and the golf course. Eighth Avenue runs south along the golf course for one block before terminating at Virginia Avenue. Virginia proceeds east for one block to intersect with 7th. This creates a horseshoe shaped “court” of Cambridge/8th Avenue/Virginia, with the two parallel streets accessible only from 7th Avenue but connected by the short span of 8th Avenue. This pattern is repeated in the two streets south of Virginia, where both Wilshire Drive and Lewis Avenue are entered from 7th Avenue and are connected via a block-long stretch of 8th Avenue. The two southernmost streets, Vernon Avenue and Encanto Boulevard, have the same arrangement, although Encanto Boulevard extends west along the golf course and into neighborhoods beyond. This street layout creates six blocks which alternate in width. Where the short spans of 8th Avenue run alongside the golf course, the blocks are six lots wide. Between each “court,” the blocks are seven lots wide, with the westernmost lot directly abutting the golf course. In the center of each block is an alley that provides access to the rear of the lots. The northernmost block is slightly longer than the others, corresponding to a curve in the golf course boundary. This creates an irregularity in the district’s otherwise rectangular shape.

The streetscape in Encanto Vista is uniform, with setbacks, massing, and landscaping contributing to a coherent appearance. The streets are flat, and wide enough to permit on-street parking. They are paved in asphalt and have rolled concrete curbs. The average lot size is 65 feet wide by 130 feet deep. End lots on the golf course side are slightly wider. The houses in Encanto Vista are virtually all one-story in height and are similarly sized, with low horizontal massing. They are set back a uniform 30 feet from the street. There are very few fences or walls in the front yards, which creates a feeling of openness. The few landscaping walls that do exist are low stucco walls located between lots and not along the sidewalks. Taller walls or fences are commonly found in side and rear yards. A large majority of lots in the district have broad front lawns, with neatly manicured hedges, low flower beds, and mature palm, Palo Verde, or pine trees. A few lots are xeriscaped, with low water use native plants and crushed gravel. Most lots have straight concrete driveways. Some original two-track driveways remain, although the majority of driveways have been infilled or replaced with new concrete. A small number of driveways have been widened. There are streetlights along 7th Avenue and a small number along the 8th Avenue blocks, but none on the other interior streets of the neighborhood. No other street furniture is found.

The houses in the district display various styles and plans; however, they were built during a fifteenyear span between 1945 and 1959 and possess an architectural unity that contributes to the coherence of the streetscape. All but two of the houses are one story in height, and the two that are not were originally one-story houses with later second story additions. The vast majority of the houses, approximately 90 percent, are Ranch in style. Several different stylistic variations are found, including hipped and gabled basic Ranches, and several Revival or other Ranch styles. The other 10 percent of the houses are Modern, with several high-style, architect-designed examples. All of the houses have low, horizontal massing and home sizes in the district average 1,900 square feet. Over half of the houses have medium-pitched hipped roofs, and approximately twenty percent of houses have lower-pitched gabled roofs. Other roof forms include flat and gable-on-hip. The majority of gabled houses have L-shaped plans with a shallow front ell, although side-gabled rectangular plans are found. The majority of hipped houses have a more irregular roof form and centrally-massed appearance. Hipped roof forms often have a main central hip and either multiple intersecting hips corresponding to façade setbacks, or multiple hipped ells. Flat roofs are predominately found on Modern houses. Some of the later houses have integral, attached garages or carports that further elongate their façades, but many of the district’s houses have detached garages in the rear near the alley. In general, detached garages match the house, with similar roof forms and construction materials.

Construction materials and other design elements are largely consistent throughout the district, as well. The majority of the houses have masonry construction, with brick, painted brick, or painted block exterior walls. Approximately two-thirds of the houses have brick exteriors, with both running bond and Flemish bond found. About one-fifth of the houses are constructed with eight-inch concrete block. A small number of houses have stucco, slump block, or wood siding, although several of the stucco houses originally had masonry finishes. The most common roofing material is asphalt shingle, and many of the houses feature tiled ridgelines. Clay tile and concrete tile roofs are also found. All of the houses have large window openings, including fixed and operable sash picture windows in various configurations. Many houses have corner windows. Decorative window types such as bullseye, bay, and sidelight are all found in the district. The Modern houses have primarily steel casements, fixed picture windows, ribbon windows, and clerestories. The most common window material district-wide is steel casement, although some houses have wood and aluminum windows. A few houses have replacement aluminum or vinyl sash, and others have replacement glass in their original casement sash.

Porches are found on most of the houses, although as is common for the Ranch style, most porches are small and function more as entry shelters. Many of the porches are located under cornice overhangs along the front façade, and are found both with and without porch supports. Others are flat- or shed-roofed corner porches located at the junction of ells. Some porches are simply shedroofed hoods extending from the roof edge. In a few instances there are more substantial inset or attached porches. Several houses have carports, either inset or attached. Porch and carport supports are most commonly iron or 4x4 wood posts. Rear patios are found district-wide.

The district contains a core palette of ornamental details that are used in various combinations on each house. This creates both individuality and consistency. Commonly found ornamental details include exposed rafter ends, shutters, and contrasting wainscoting wherein the wainscot brick has a different brick size or bond than the walls. Also found are contrasting brick colors or razor stone in small areas such as entry surrounds. Low brick or block planters are found at many houses, usually constructed in the same material as the house. Prominent chimneys are architectural features on many houses, especially the Modern styles, whose chimneys are massive. Also found in the district are bulls-eye windows, glass block windows, and low patio walls.

Many Ranches in the district have simple forms and limited ornamental detail. A typical example of a basic hipped Ranch is 706 W. Encanto Boulevard, which is a brick house with a large hipped roof, steel casement windows including a large picture window, and a small shed-roofed porch hood supported by scrolled metal posts. A typical simple gabled ranch design is found at 705 W. Virginia Avenue. It is side-gabled with a shallow front-gabled ell at one end and an inset carport at the other end. It has steel casement windows with decorative shutters, painted brick walls, and wood clapboard in the gable ends.

The most common variation of the Ranch style found in the district is the French Provincial Ranch. A good example is found in 721 W. Lewis Avenue, a brick house with a stepped footprint and multiple intersecting hip roofs, each with a tiled ridgeline. A large picture window is found on the front-most volume, and elsewhere steel casement windows are found. A large corner casement window is a prominent feature. The house has a deeply inset corner entry porch supported by wood columns, and an inset carport under the hipped rear side wing. A single glass block near the entrance provides decorative detail. A slightly different French Provincial Ranch example is 711 W. Lewis Avenue, which has multiple intersecting hips, a shed-roofed porch hood, two prominent corner casement windows, and an attached one-car garage in a front wing.

A small number of other Ranch variations are found. Among them are 702 W. Vernon Avenue and 706 W. Cambridge Avenue, which can best be described as California Ranch houses in that their elongated façades are emphasized by long front porches with regularly spaced wood porch posts. There is a Spanish Colonial Ranch at 701 W. Cambridge Avenue. It is a painted brick house with a hipped clay tile roof with front-gabled ell, an arched entry porch, and exposed rafters. Finally, the Ranch at 733 W. Virginia Avenue is Contemporary in style. It has a side-gabled, rectangular footprint, three large picture windows on the front façade, a flat-roofed carport supported by angled posts, and a recessed entry flanked by a single sidelight. It has virtually no ornamentation, except for a gabled roof vent with a shallow pitch that punctuates the center of the roof plane. Despite its modern appearance, it is a Ranch house in plan, form, and massing.

A number of Modern Houses are found in the district, including some high-style, architect-designed examples. The house at 712 W. Vernon Avenue, designed by architect Frederick Weaver, Jr., has an unusual design. It is a brick front-gabled house with a low roof pitch like a short, shallow A-frame.

The front façade features a long primary wall plane with one setback on the left at the carport. Half of the primary wall plane is a running bond brick wall devoid of windows, and the other half is comprised of a wide carved wood front door amidst a span of large plate glass windows. A partial-width carport and front porch roof has the same pitch as the house roof. The Modern house at 801 West Windsor Avenue was designed by architect Mel Ensign. It has a long, horizontal form with several lowpitched, almost flat, intersecting shed roofs with overhanging cornices. A ribbon of clerestory windows stretches most of the way across the front façade, and a massive, wide brick chimney penetrates the main house volume at a perpendicular angle. The carport is set at a slight angle to the house, its roof supported by a brick wall and louvered, closely-spaced support posts. The district contains several examples of more modest Modern houses, as well, such as 733 W. Cambridge Avenue, which features an extremely low, almost flat roof pitch, a U-shaped plan, a large stone chimney, and ribbon-style corner windows.

There are twelve noncontributing houses in the district. Two of them are considered noncontributing due to nonhistoric second-story additions. One of the houses, 730 W. Encanto Boulevard, has an enlarged and altered garage with a second-story addition. It sits on a corner lot and the addition is prominent. The other house, 712 W. Wilshire Drive, has a large second-story addition that is as wide as the original house volume. It is set back behind the front roof plane of the original house, but is still prominent. Other houses are considered noncontributing due to alterations. For example, multiple changes were made to the house at 718 W. Encanto Boulevard. Stucco was applied over the brick siding, arched carport and front porch entries were added, and metal security bars were installed over the windows and around the porch. Other noncontributing houses have had less extensive alterations, such as the house at 702 W. Encanto Boulevard, which has had its windows replaced with vinyl sash, its front door replaced with an unsympathetic contemporary front door, and its tile roof replaced with an asphalt roof.

The Encanto Vista Historic District is a remarkably intact collection of postwar homes, with 68 houses, or 86 percent, contributing to the district. They are large, carefully-designed houses with small stylistic variations that keep the neighborhood heterogeneous. However, the similarities in size, setback, and massing create coherent streetscapes with excellent overall integrity. Following is a table that details the date of construction, basic style, and contributing status of each of the houses in Encanto Vista Historic District.

Source: https://www.phoenix.gov/pddsite/Documents/HP/pdd_hp_nif_nrn0005.pdf