Once a stagecoach stop that connected Phoenix with an army outpost in the 1860s, Scottsdale has undergone many transformations—from a desert oasis with farms and ranches to a wellness-focused winter destination and a tourist attraction with Western vibe. It's now a bustling city of technology/medical hubs, resorts, museums and stadiums.
“Welcome to Scottsdale—the ‘The West’s Most Western Town’—where the striking desert landscape and warm, dry climate have long attracted newcomers,” says Becca Linnig, ABR, CRS, SRES, agent and property manager, REMAX Fine Properties, herself a newcomer almost 30 years ago.
Old Town Scottsdale remains the city’s heart where influences from the late 1880s town-turned-modern city converge in a walkable mix of historic buildings and homes, new condominiums, restaurants and other businesses that make it the area’s economic engine, Linnig says.
Water Brings Life
The catalyst that spurred Scottsdale’s development was completion of the Arizona Canal in 1885, which provided water for the Salt River Valley. Desert soil became fertile for settlement and investment.
“U.S. Army chaplain Winfield Scott purchased 640 acres in 1888 and laid the foundation for the original farming and ranching community that became Scottsdale,” says Joan Fudala, author and historian who relocated to the area 38 years ago.
Scottsdale’s true founding dates further back, she says. “Almost 8,000 years ago, Native Americans traveled through the area as hunters. Later, about 2,000 years, they began to establish communities along what is now Scottsdale’s Eastern border.
“Chaplain Scott went to the chief of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community for permission to become a neighbor. Others bought land but Scott and his wife were the first settlers dedicated to building a community,” Fudala says.
Home to citrus groves, the area was originally to be named “Orangedale,” but a newspaper error popularized “Scottsdale” to honor Scott. The name stuck. Fudala explains, “Modest farms and ranches and early residential housing, including the Scotts’ home, were centered in Old Town Scottsdale for the first 60 years or through World War II.”
Westerns, Weather, Jobs Spurred Migration
“During World War II, a lot of people tried to escape war worries by going to Western movies. So, after the war, people wanted to come to Arizona because they wanted to live what they saw,” Fudala says.
Linnig adds: “After the war, growing job opportunities brought thousands of people who came for work, then fell in love with the sunshine, the desert and the health benefits of the Southwestern lifestyle.”
“We were ripe for new residents coming here because of the GI Bill benefits to help them buy a house,” Fudala says. “Opportunities were here to start new businesses. And then in the late 1940s, Motorola opened a big plant in Scottsdale, bringing us into the high-tech area. That changed a lot of the farmland into suburban housing.”
From a town of 2,000 residents in 1951, Scottsdale grew and officially became a city a decade later.
Architecture and Lifestyle That Fit
The area’s vernacular architecture developed to suit its climate, terrain and materials, long before electricity and mechanical cooling. “In the early 1900s, homes and businesses were built with adobe bricks like these that insulated against the desert heat,” Linnig says.
A light color palette helped reduce the sun’s strong effects, and native plantings survived without much water, Fudala says. The area gained a mix of other housing styles, from Spanish-Colonial to Tuscan-style and newer contemporary designs.
“When you are looking in Scottsdale, you’re purchasing your home for a lifestyle,” Linnig says. “It is an opportunity to have really everything at your fingertips, whether it be shopping or entertainment, a night out or a day to treat yourself. There are hiking trails, over 32,000 acres that is a dedicated preserve, just get out and enjoy the weather that we have. We always say you don’t have to shovel sunshine.
“But Scottsdale has a lot of different reasons for people to come and spend time with us,” Linnig says. “Once they get here, they realize that the weather is one reason to stay. So, we have nightlife, we have day life, we really have a strong culture.”
Fudala says, “There is something for everyone in Scottsdale.”
Homeownership as Glue
Agents play a key role because they are invested in the community. “For us to be educated, not only on the communities, the design, the structure and even the unique words that we have, like 'pergola,' there are things you learn when you move to a place like Scottsdale.
“And if it wasn’t for us caring about our community, we wouldn’t be able to sell a home to someone and ultimately make them call it home,” she says. “This mid-century modern home was built in 1959, and it is the perfect example of blending old and new,” Linnig says, pointing to Suzette and Mario Bottoni’s Old Town Scottsdale home.
“We moved to Scottsdale in 2008,” Suzette says. “And I loved the area. It was full of art galleries, and I could have my chickens. And it was just beautiful, beautiful old homes. They’re all historic homes. It’s not a cookie-cutter community.”
She also liked her home’s palette and vintage. “They weren’t afraid of colors. Everything wasn’t all white tile like it is now and very modern. Seventy years later, they (the tiles) still are in perfect condition. Things were made of quality. Things don’t rust here because of the desert air, and it’s a great place to have gardens in the winter where you can’t do that in the Midwest,” Bottoni says.
The landscape was also a lure. “The desert’s beautiful. Just so different from what I grew up with (in Chicago)—the palm trees and the cactus and the animals. And the mountains and the sunsets—there’s no sunset like an Arizona sunset. It’s really beautiful,” she says.
Bottoni also liked being able to have an art studio at home and a location close to the hospital where she works as a nurse.
Frank Lloyd Wright Puts a Stamp
After the war, the area south of Old Town Scottsdale gained homes. To the north near the 30,500-acre McDowell Sonoran Preserve, which covers large swaths of the McDowell Mountains, architect Frank Lloyd Wright founded Taliesin West, his winter home, studio and school of architecture in 1937. He originally came from Chicago in the late 1920s to consult on the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix.
The desert setting inspired his concept of organic architecture that blends with the environment, Fudala says. Today Wright’s studio is a UNESCO World Historic site where workshops and events are held.
Preservation Efforts Persevere
Saving and restoring important sites slowly gained traction. “Sometimes you don’t realize what you’re missing until it’s gone,” says REALTOR® Scott Jarson, whose firm AZ Architecture/Jarson & Jarson has its office in Old Town Scottsdale. “Our city made a huge effort to preserve our heritage after some buildings were lost,” he says.
Among buildings saved in Old Town Scottsdale are the Charles Miller House from 1913, assembled from a kit from the Sears-Roebuck catalog, and now a boutique, says Fudala. The 1930s Mowry House became a restaurant.
Several organizations played a role. The Scottsdale Historical Society was founded in 1969; followed by the Scottsdale Historical Museum in 1991 in the old Little Red Schoolhouse, now on local and national registries; the Scottsdale Historic Preservation Commission dates to 1997, and Old Adobe Mission, once a church, was placed on the Register of Historic Buildings in 2001.
In 2005, Scottsdale began developing the banks of the canal in Old Town Scottsdale into a walkable community similar to San Antonio’s River Walk, with residences, Scottsdale Fashion Square—the city’s largest mall, HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center and Scottsdale Stadium, winter home of the San Francisco Giants.
Events regularly occur: Galleries in the Scottsdale Arts District stay open Thursday evenings for Scottsdale ArtWalk, each February the Parada del Sol Parade & Trail’s End Festival celebrates Western heritage with its route passing through and the city encourages residential block parties.
The need for more housing led to the third leg of a work-play-live trifecta. “The threshold for the Old Town [of] Scottsdale is about $750,000 for a 1950s ranch-style home with three bedrooms and small yard,” Jarson says. Homes with views of Camelback Mountain in the Arcadia neighborhood list for over $1 million, he says.
Community as Glue
Homeownership plays an integral role in Scottsdale because it has helped build a feeling of community. “We have over 250,000 residents but because of homeownership we actually feel like a small town,” Linnig says.
“There’s a closeness in this area that just feels natural and full of family, children, dogs playing in the park up the street,” she continues. “You know your neighbors are going to be here because no one moves out of the neighborhood. We’re a lot of Midwesterners. There’re not many people born here, so we make our friends our family.
“People come from around the world for Scottsdale’s sunshine, culture and unique desert lifestyle, but what makes them return and inspires so many to call it home is the close-knit community at its heart,” Linnig says.
