Cities

Safe from Sin Glendale's Founders Envisioned a Haven for the Righteous

Text by Dean Smith William J. Murphy hated the Demon Rum with a burning passion. His wife, Laura, was not only a teetotaler, she also would not allow tobacco, playing cards, or dancing in her house.

And because the Murphys were so puritanical, Glendale was founded 100 years ago as the only town in sinful Arizona Territory where a parched sojourner could not buy an alcoholic drink.

Murphy was the engineering genius who gouged the Arizona Canal westward from the Salt River, 40 miles across the desert north of Phoenix, in 1885. Once he had brought irrigation to the western Salt River Valley, he naturally tried to earn an honest dollar by selling land to prospective settlers.

Soon after the canal was finished, he invited Burgess Hadsell of Chicago, a Noted colonizer for the Brethren Church, to come to what is now Glendale to talk about establishing a temperance colony there. Hadsell and two associates arrived on a July day in 1885, checked out the 110° F. temperature, and fled the scene almost at once for the cooler climes of Southern California, where they established the town of Covina.

But Murphy did not give up easily. Late in 1891, he persuaded Hadsell to come back for another look. This time the weather was delightful, so Hadsell brought some 70 families of God-fearing, nondrinking Brethren, including 33 of his relatives, from the Midwest to establish "The Temperance Colony of Glendale" nine miles northwest of the booming town of Phoenix. Advertisements in Midwestern newspapers trumpeted that Glendale was a community of "homes, schoolhouses, and churches, but no saloons or gambling houses."

Newcomers agreed to buy land from Murphy's development company and signed deeds which forbade the sale or consumption of alcoholic liquors on the premises. The first Glendale townsite, called Hadsell's Addition, was platted in February, 1892; an adjoining acreage, site of today's downtown Murphy Park and municipal buildings, was subdivided six months later.

To mark the 100th anniversary of its founding, Glendale is celebrating throughout 1992 with a series of special events. Glenn Goodrich, who heads the Centennial Committee, promises feasting, dancing in the streets, and historical galas. Some celebrants may even risk the heavenly wrath of founding fathers Murphy and Hadsell by taking a nip from the cup that cheers.

For decades Glendale old-timers have debated the origin of their city's name. Some claim Hadsell chose it called “Sonorita,” sprang up just south of the future Glendale townsite early in 1885. Indeed, the oldest grave (1885) in any Glendale cemetery is that of Ramon Alday, one of those Mexican-American pioneers.

Glendale was soon to become a miniature United Nations. Japanese farmers and Chinese storekeepers put down roots there in 1904. A colony of Russian farmers arrived in 1911 to grow sugar beets and operate dairies. Basque sheepmen established homes, as did Lebanese merchants. Each brought spice and diversity to the town, which accepted the newcomers with a minimum of friction. But the puritanical Protestants still set the moral tone, as evidenced in the first ordinances passed by the council when Glendale organized as a town in 1910. Among the nono's: appearing in a public place in dress not belonging to the sex of the party wearing it, exposing or selling indecent or lewd books or photos, using obscene language in any public place, and annoying or disturbing any religious congregation. And, of course, the selling or consumption of any alcoholic beverage. Glendale was founded as a dry town, and the city fathers meant to keep it that way.

During most of its first half-century, Glendale was content to be known as a farming town, a bedroom community for Phoenix, and “a great place to raise a family.” This was no wild Arizona shoot-'em-up boomtown. Population grew slowly, from 1,100 in 1910, to 2,737 in 1920, and to 3,665 in 1930. The town's economy was based on agriculture, and even its major industries - the sugar factory (whose 184foot smokestack was the tallest structure in central Arizona), Southwest Flour and Feed, Webster's Dairy, Crystal Ice, cotton gins, and produce packing sheds all were farm-related. Countless crates of Glendale lettuce and melons were chilled in Santa Fe cars at the Crystal Ice dock and rushed to every corner of the nation.

World War II changed Glendale's character forever, spawning nearby Luke and Thunderbird pilot-training bases and bringing an avalanche of new residents with new ideas about almost everything. New industries, many of them in the electronics field, popped up like wildflowers after a desert rain.

Glendale became a college town in 1946 when Thunderbird Field was reborn as The American Institute of Foreign Trade (now the American Graduate School of International Management). Grand Canyon College was established a few blocks east of the town in 1951, and Glendale Community College opened in 1965. The fourth major educational institution in Glendale's environs, Arizona State University's West Campus, was created in 1984.

Safe from Sin

The city today is a far cry from the struggling temperance colony planted in the desert a century ago.

Glendale High School graduate John F. Long built a house for his bride, the former Mary Tolmachoff, in 1947 and became so enthralled with construction he created an entire community just south of Glendale and named it "Maryvale" in honor of his wife.

In 1961 an aggressive city administration headed by Mayor Byron Peck and City Manager Stan Van de Putte gobbled up much of Maryvale in an audacious annexation. Suddenly Glendale added 15,000 citizens, doubling its population and extending its southern boundary down to Camelback Road.

Energetic Max Klass, mayor from 1966 to 1976, pushed Glendale forward on a dozen fronts, sometimes stepping on tender toes. The city continued to annex adjoining residential developments, at times clashing with neighboring Peoria and Phoenix in the process. Today Glendale sprawls, in a reverse "L" shape, over 56.7 square miles - 13 miles south to north, from Camelback to Pinnacle Peak roads, and 9 miles east to west, from 43rd to 115th avenues.

With 150,000 residents, fast-growing Glendale today is Arizona's fourth-largest city, surpassed only by Phoenix, Tucson, and Mesa. It's still a community of churches, schools, shady streets, and attractive residential areas and still a great place to raise a family: an amazing 72 per cent of Glendale folk own their homes, and the city's median family income is just under $40,000 a year.

There has been one significant change in Glendale's life-style since the days of Murphy and Hadsell: you can order a schooner of suds or buy a bottle or a case of joy juice all over town.

In recent years, the city's most well-known resident has been "The Gov," Evan Mecham, who moved up from his Pontiac dealership to the governor's office in 1987, only to be ousted a year later after a nationally publicized impeachment trial.

Before Ev, Glendale gained fame as the boyhood home of the late countrywestern singer Marty Robbins (his neighbors knew him in those days as Martin Robinson). Glendale is the hometown of pro golfer Howard Twitty and former Houston University football coach Bill Yeoman. Rock star Alice Cooper and baseball slugger Bob Horner attended Glendale district high schools, as did landscape photographer Jerry Jacka.

George Renner, mayor of Glendale the past 12 years during its spectacular growth and maturation, is becoming one of Arizona's better-known political figures. His name often surfaces in discussions of future Arizona gubernatorial candidates.

"We're very proud of our city," Renner declares, "and I can't think of any place I'd rather live. We take special pride in our new municipal office complex, the development of Sahuaro Ranch Park, luring of clean industry, our wonderful new library, our new courts building, schools, adult-center programs and we have dedicated citizen involvement here that is unsurpassed anywhere."

The municipality is a far cry from the struggling temperance colony that William J. Murphy and Burgess Hadsell planted in the desert a century ago. Glendale's meteoric rise from small town to big city left some gaps still to be filled: a symphony orchestra, a major hotel, art galleries, a daily newspaper. Central city redevelopment is only beginning.

Glendale is getting there, however, and getting there fast. Some East Valley cities matured a bit sooner, but Glendale's glory days are still ahead. It will be exciting to watch it all happen.