Located northeast of 16th Street and Thomas, Earll Place is one of Phoenix Arizona’s 35 residential historic districts. Each district has its own personality and history. We’d like to offer you our take on Earll Place Historic District.
Earll Place Historic District Today:
Earll Place sits to the east of most Phoenix historic districts and has its own uniqueness and quality. Many home buyers like the low home prices Earll Place offer for period revival homes. Other historic districts with period revival homes, such as Willo, Encanto/Palmcroft and Coronado, are generally much higher priced.
Prices are a lower for a number of reasons. It is several blocks away from downtown Phoenix and the popular light rail system; the lots are narrower than some other areas and the proximity to the 202 freeway is considered less optimal to some. However, it does feature a rare selection of true period revival and bungalow style homes.
Many of the historic districts offer homes built in the 1940’s and 50’s. Homes in these districts are often ranch style and do not have the uniqueness of the period revival homes. Since Earll Place began development in the late 1920’s and 30’s, its houses have tremendous personality.
Earll Place is also noted for its deep lots. The original homes (47 according to tax records) often had unattached garages. Today, many of these have been converted to guest houses or studios.
We have created a picture tour of the neighborhood we invite you to pursue. It can be found at the end of this article.
Earll Place: A Brief History
Earll Place was the dream of Mr. E.A. Earll. He took a patch of agricultural land and subdivided it for home building in February of 1927. He, like many of his contemporaries, were responding to massive population growth and housing demands created by the ending of WW1, the strong local agricultural economy, world-wide tourism, and the stable water supply Roosevelt dam created when completed in 1911.
Mr. Earll sold both vacant lots and finished spec homes on his newly subdivided land. According to the Earll Historic District web site, the first home was a Tudor Style located at 1626 E. Pinchot. (Today that home looks more like a Tudor/Bungalow hybrid.)
Earll Place offered ¼ and 1/3 acre lots selling for $350.00 & $385.00 respectively. If you wanted a complete home with “automatic range” and electric hot water heater you could have it for a mere $4,750. Plus, there were no city property taxes since the homes were “out-of-town.”
By 1931 Earll sold all his lots and spec homes. Some say Wrigley’s announcement to build the new Biltmore Hotel project had much to do with the growing interest in northern developments such as Earll Place.
The dominant architectural style of the neighborhood was revival style. George McCinnis is said to have built most of the Tudor revivals and Bungalows while CW Harvey was the man behind the Spanish revivals; I am not sure if Harvey was also responsible for the Southwest style. The fact only two contractors built most of the homes explains much about the continuity of character found in Earll Place.
The Bottom Line:
Earll Place isn’t as pretty as Willo, yet it has many fine Period Revival homes and the prices make it worth a look. If proximity to light rail and the heart of downtown isn’t a big factor, you just may fall in love with an Earll Place home.
Talking about taking a look, we have a couple things you may be interested in. One is our YouTube video of Earll Place. It will give you a sense of the neighborhood and its homes. Second is a link that will show you what homes are currently for sale in Earle Place. Just click on the “homes for sale link” to see what is on the market today… we update the link daily so the info is very current.
A Video Tour of Earll Place Historic District
HOMES CURRENTLY FOR SALE OR RENT IN EARLL PLACE
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