I found a pretty cool study that was performed on the residential development of Tucson between 1945 and 1973, with some interesting maps.
I like that the maps give a very good overview of Central Tucson. You can see on page 3 how the city grew over time. If you look at the map on page 5 and zoom in a bit, you can see the relative size of Central Tucson homes: lots of yellow and blue squares which puts many many homes between 1000 and 1700 sq ft. There’s also a map that shows exterior wall materials, roof materials, the presence of carports or garages, patios, lots of stuff.
Here’s a snippet from the main report:
At the beginning of World War II, Tucson was home to 40,000 people located within approximately 20 square miles. Attracted by jobs, affordable homes and mild climate, the population grew by 368%, a 57% higher rate
than the growth in Phoenix during this same time period. By 1950 the metropolitan area had 122,764 residents. However, two-thirds of this
population did not actually live within Tucson but settled instead in subdivisions which sprang up around its corporate limits. This pattern
changed during the 1950s as the City began an aggressive campaign of annexation and the city boundaries were extended to include over 70 square miles by 1960. Most of the annexed areas were single family subdivisions developed in the county with limited or no zoning or building requirements.
There’s some interesting reading in there - how unregulated development areas were annexed, how the city dealt with the rapid growth in terms of planning and water resources, who and how created all these subdivisions anyway.
Another excerpt:
An interesting aspect of the rise of the large scale builders and the increased involvement of developers with national operations in Tucson
was the evolution of names for the subdivisions. The name given a subdivision is a branding technique and part of its marketing. In the first
decade after World War II many of the Tucson subdivisions had Spanish names. For example, the name given the 1947 Bonita Vista Addition not only reflected the Hispanic heritage of the community but also conveyed that the subdivision had pretty views. … In the sixties the practice of using descriptive names related to the history and character of the community essentially disappeared. Names were now generated by corporate offices and were generic monikers the same as those used to identify subdivisions across the nation. For example, a large 228 unit subdivision was recorded
in 1960 by the Arizona Land Title and Trust Company with the name Warwick Village. Other sixties developments included Westwood Village,
Centennial Park, Enchanted Hills, Hidden Hills, Lakeside, and Blue Ridge Estates, the latter two developed by the Lusk Corporation.
Lastly in the detailed report is a section about the styles used during building during this period with examples and descriptions. I’m going to have to go through those carefully in order to tell the difference between them. Who knew there were so many kinds of ranches? There’s the:
Transitional Ranch, Simple Builder Ranch, Simple Custom Ranch, Tucson Ranch, Spanish Colonial Ranch, Character Ranch, Modern Ranch, Contemporary, Postwar Territorial, Postwar Pueblo, and Split Level.
Really a great snapshot of what to expect in Central Tucson homes!
