Garfield Historic District Phoenix AZ

Generally bounded by Roosevelt, Van Buren, Seventh and 16th Streets.

Period of Significance: 1883-1942

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The Garfield Historic District is an early suburban neighborhood located on the edge of downtown Phoenix, approximately three-quarters of a mile northeast of the city center and immediately north of East Van Buren Street. The district was developed in phases and largely contains domestic properties with a number of small scale commercial and religious buildings, including several churches. Domestic buildings reflect Classical Revival, Craftsman, and Southwest influences. The Garfield Historic District is a large, irregularly-shaped district approximately 160 acres in size. It contains 769 resources, 87% of which were built during the historic period, between 1893 and 1955. Of the total number of resources, 484 (63%), have been determined to be contributing elements in the district and 284 (37%), are noncontributing features. The district is predominately residential in nature, with 640 single-family houses, 57 duplexes, 4 small residential courts, and 48 apartment buildings or complexes. The district also contains eight commercial buildings, four churches, one parsonage, and one park, with four buildings, counted as a site. The boundaries of the National Register district generally correspond to the boundaries of the Phoenix local historic district of the same name which was listed in the city register in February, 2005.

The Garfield Historic District is located on the edge of downtown Phoenix, north of Van Buren Street and south of Interstate 10. The district has an irregular boundary that includes portions of eight east-west streets—Roosevelt, Garfield, McKinley, Pierce, Fillmore, Taylor, Polk, and Van Buren Streets—between 7th and 16th Streets. To the east and west of the district, 7th and 16th Streets are major six- and seven-lane north-south thoroughfares lined with commercial properties. At the south end of the district, Van Buren Street is a major east-west artery also lined with commercial properties. North of the district lies the North Garfield Historic District (NR pending), a neighborhood sharing Garfield’s early history and possessing similar streetscapes and architectural character. Just beyond North Garfield is Interstate 10, also known as the Papago Freeway. The streets in the Garfield Historic District form an irregular grid, with the aforementioned named streets running east-west and multiple numbered streets running north-south. The east-west streets are regularly spaced in most places, although slight variation is found. The north-south streets, however, are not regularly spaced, and some streets do not continue through the entire district. This creates residential blocks of unequal size. Alleys are found in almost all of the interior blocks.

The streetscapes in the Garfield Historic District vary from one to another, but setbacks, massing, and landscaping are fairly consistent district-wide and create a congruous appearance. The streets are flat with traditional concrete curbs; most are paved in asphalt although a few, including McKinley between 14th and 15th streets, are covered in concrete. Most of the streets are about 30 feet wide. Alleys are approximately 15 feet in width. All of the streets have concrete sidewalks, although the sidewalk placement varies. For example, most east-west streets have sidewalks set approximately five feet from the street. There are a small number of exceptions where the sidewalk is placed adjacent to the street, including a section of McKinley between 7th and 9th Streets and an angled section of Taylor Street in the southeast corner of the district. The north-south streets in the western portion of the district, 9th, 10th, and 11th Streets, have sidewalks set back about 10 feet from the street, whereas 12th and 14th Streets have sidewalks less than five feet from the stree. tDespite the variation in block size and configuration, lot sizes in the district are fairly consistent. The majority of lots measure approximately 150 feet deep by 50 feet wide. Smaller, variously-shaped lots are found along north-south streets such as 9th, 11th, and 14th Streets, as well as along partial streets such as 11th Place and13th Place in the southern portion of the district.

The buildings in the district are similarly sized, with the majority (93%) being one story in height. There are 53 buildings over one story in height, including 23 one-and a-half and two-story houses, several of which are new construction. The remaining 30 consist of ten secondary dwellings, three tall churches, six houses with second-story additions, and eleven apartment buildings. Setbacks are fairly consistent, with houses are back between 30 and 40 feet from the curb. Lots facing the north-south streets and lots along the angled portion of Taylor Street have shorter setbacks. Approximately two-thirds of the resources have low, non-historic front yard fences about three feet high. The most common fence type is chain link, which is found about one-third of houses. Two other common fence types are low concrete block or stuccoed walls, and fences with iron bars spaced between stuccoed piers. The district contains a small number of other fence types, such as iron, wood picket, brick, or wood and wire. The lots are minimally landscaped, with grass, dior gravel yards, bushes or low hedges, or trees such as palo verde, palm, or mesquite. Many lots feature narrow concrete walkways leading to the houses. Most lots have straight concrete driveways which lead togarages in the rear or attached carports. Very few two-track driveways remain—the majority of driveways have been infilled, replaced with new concrete, or widened slightly. Rear yards are fenced at the alleys. Th edistrict contains fewer than one hundred non-historic streetlights, in fairly regular intervals along the streets. Approximately 11% of the houses in the district have small rear houses. Most of the secondary dwellings are non-historic or are significantly altered, however, and are located behind other houses, largely out of view. Since they do not directly contribute to the streetscape, they are not counted among the district’s resources. A  limited number of secondary dwellings were inventoried; these were generally located at the street instead of in the rear, and thus were part of the streetscape.

The district's period of significance is 1883-1955. This period covers the major building phases in the neighborhood: 1893 to 1915 Classical Revival and Craftsman; 1915-1925 Craftsman; mid-1920s to midS outhwest Style and other period revival; and late-1930s to mid-1950s Ranch. In all, approximately 10% of the houses in the district were built between 1893 and 1914 and are predominately Classical Revival in style. About 53% of the district’s houses were built between about 1915 and 1925, with the Craftsman style most predominant. Approximately 13% of the neighborhood’s resources date from 1926-1935. This span includea wide range of house types, with Southwest Style the most common. Approximately 12% of the houses in the Garfield Historic District were built between about 1938 and 1955. Houses from this time period are primarily Early Ranch and Ranch in style, although period revivals and International Style houses are also found. Only 13% of the resources in Garfield were built after the period of significance; these are primarily single-family houses built to resemble Craftsman bungalows, and apartment buildings. The vast majority of secondary dwellings in Garfield are non-historic, or are significantly altered historic garages or similar. Their ad hoc construction makes them difficult to date.

Garfield's architectural diversity is also created by various roof types, construction materials and decorative details. Seventy-four percent of the district’s buildings have gabled roofs. Of the total number of gabled roof approximately 42% are front-gabled, 43% are side-gabled, and the remaining are cross-gabled. At least thirty-five houses have clipped gables. About 9% of the buildings in the district have hipped roofs, and another 1% have a hip roof variation such as cross-hip, hip with gable, or gable-on-hip. About 11% of the district’s buildings have flat roofs, either with or without parapets. Stucco is the most common building material iGarfield, with 53% of buildings having stucco exteriors. In some cases the stucco is not original. Approximately 27% of the buildings in the district are brick, 6% are block, including rusticated and other decorative types, and 10% are wood. Replacement siding such as vinyl or aluminum is found on less than 1% of the district’s buildings. The great majority of the gabled and hipped houses have asphalt shingle roofs. The flat-roofed resources have built-up roofs.

A variety of window types and configurations are found in the district. Approximately 55% of the houses in the district retain their historic windows. Approximately 40% of the houses feature wood double-hung windows, most with 1/1 sash. These are most frequently found in the Craftsman houses, but are also in some period revivals. Approximately 8% of the houses have wood casement windows, most often in vertical orientation with square divided light patterns. About 7% of the houses have steel casement windows. Wood and steel casements windows are commonly found on the period revival and Early Ranch houses. About 30% of the houses have aluminum replacement windows, and 15% have vinyl.

Ornamental details vary greatly with each architectural style. Craftsman houses have details such as exposed rafters, trusswork, and brackets. Many of the brick Craftsman houses have segmental arch window and door openings. Southwest Style and Spanish Colonial Revival houses are generally stucco, with flat roofs and decorative details such as tile porch roofs or parapets. Tudor Revival houses commonly have arched porcentries, and Early Ranch houses have minimal decoration such as window shutters. Many of the older house in the district have brick chimneys. In general, the Early Ranch and Ranch houses do not have chimneys. See original source for much more detail.