Five

URBANIZATION BRINGS CHANGE

As Glendale developed commercially, farmland yielded to subdivisions, shopping centers, and schools. Construction topped $1 million by 1952. In the 1950s, the speed limit on Grand Avenue was raised from 25 to 35 miles per hour, and Glendale’s Patti Marks was chosen Queen of the Arizona Melon Festival (1955). The El Rey Theater closed in 1957 after 20 years of screening movies. Also, the post office moved to larger quarters twice, Canasta parties were popular, and a new Oldsmobile 88 two-door sedan was priced at $2,700.

Floods still periodically dampened downtown as they had since the town was founded, but they did not hinder the progress of Glendale. That progress included population growth, annexation of land into the city, building, and expansion of municipal services. Casualties of these changes were many of the old landmark buildings, such as the Hotel Glenwood, which was condemned in 1959.

Vestiges of an earlier Glendale are found in parades and celebrations, many of which had their roots in the early 1920s. The annual rodeo and parade was a weeklong event that ended with a World Championship Rodeo featuring 100 or more head of cattle and upwards of 50 bucking horses. In 1952, the parade “caravan” was led by Gov. Howard Pyle and sported homemade floats, horses and riders, bands, and others.

By 1960, nearly 16,000 people lived in Glendale. There were five elementary schools and four high schools, a paid fire department, a new sewer plant, a hospital, and the old Sugar Beet Factory was concentrating grapefruit juice for the Squirt Company.

The pattern of growth, annexation, and modernization that characterized Glendale in the 1950s also describes Glendale in the 1960s and 1970s. Population and budgets doubled and doubled again. With the Valley-wide renaming in 1962, Glendale’s Central Avenue (also known as Lateral 18) became Fifty-ninth Avenue to conform to the new system. Other streets in many Valley cities were also renamed and, necessarily, house numbers changed. Some streets, however, such as Glendale Avenue and Grand Avenue, retained their historic names.

Not long after the street renaming, Glendale Community College acquired part of Sahuaro Ranch for their campus. It had been one of the earliest farming operations in the Glendale area, but changing times brought changing uses for the land. Other indicators of change were the 30,000-plus names in the telephone directory and the growing need for a larger public library to handle the ever-growing demands of residents.

Eager hands harvest onions in a Tanita Farms field (above). The Naomasa Tanita family moved from California to Arizona in 1928 in a Model T Ford and by train. They lived north of Grand Avenue in 1941 when World War II started for the United States. In February 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing mandatory evacuation of all persons of Japanese ancestry from areas in the West near military bases. The nearness of Luke Field to Glendale resulted in some evacuations. Grand Avenue was chosen as the boundary between those (north of Grand Avenue) who could stay and those (south of Grand) who were sent to the relocation camp in Poston, Arizona, for the duration of the war. The Tanita family stayed; nevertheless, six Tanita sons served the United States in World War II. The sign (below) points the way to the Tanita Farms packing and shipping docks north of the Santa Fe railroad tracks.

From its founding, almost every town had at least one barbershop, several if it was a town of any size. Glendale was no exception. Many shops came and went, but a few stayed for decades. One was Marshall’s Barber Shop. Phil Marshall and his brother Joe were barbers in Kansas before coming to Glendale in 1930. Phil purchased Walters’ Barber Shop from Verne Walters, and the brothers started shearing and shaving. Their shop in the early years provided public showers and bathtubs for patrons. And they always maintained it as a place to discuss politics, family matters, and community news. Phil retired in 1968 and Joe in 1989. The image is Marshall’s Barber Shop in the 1940s. On the left is Sam Stoddard, grandfather of Barnes Twitty, who is being trimmed by Phil Marshall. The other patron and barbers are not identified.

In earlier times, every good barbershop had a shoe shine stand or chair. In those days, shoes were made of leather and responded well to waxes and buffing. Billy Jack, head of Glendale’s Valley National Bank, watches Sam put a high shine on a friend’s wing tips in the 1950s.

Only a distant memory today, 23¢-per-gallon gasoline was the going rate in the 1950s. And when there was a price war, gas was even cheaper. This sign on Grand Avenue at Lateral 18 (Fifty-ninth Avenue) announces the day’s price.

The E. L. Gruber Company (above) came to Glendale in December 1954. It was a manufacturer of knit underwear, the men’s briefs and T-shirts sold in J. C. Penney stores. In 1960, J. C. Penney himself visited the Gruber Company and the local Penney store to see their operations. Gruber was Glendale’s largest employer in the 1960s with more than 300 employees. Inside the plant (below), more than 100 women, each at a sewing machine, stitch the knit fabric together. Later Gruber’s became the Spring City Knitting Company, but it closed its doors in 1992. Purchased by the City of Glendale, the building today is used as a storage center for the city.

For years, the Glendale Lions Club sponsored an annual weeklong rodeo and parade. Included was a “jail” in City Park to incarcerate those who were not properly attired in Western wear. (A person could buy his or her freedom for 25¢.) One of the unique activities the first few years was local attorney Jay Sigworth’s Gila Monster Derby. Of course, there was a parade. In 1952, it was led by Gov. Howard Pyle and sported a variety of homemade floats, including this one entered by the Glendale Business and Professional Women’s organization (above). Among those riding on the float were Madge Ulrich, manager of the Glendale Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company Office; elementary school nurse Hope Ketcham; and city employee Volene Stockham. During the festivities, a queen and her attendants presided over all events, including the bronc riding (below), which in this case just ended in favor of the horse.

The Santa Fe railroad has been important to Glendale for freight-shipping services since 1895 when it first came to town. For many years it was also important for the passenger services it provided. Many a journey started or ended at this depot seen here in the 1950s. Built around 1910 to replace the original wooden depot, this depot was torn down in 1967.

Watermelons have long been a favored crop among Glendale melon growers. In the 1950s, a popular summer event, the melon festival, drew crowds in the tens of thousands to Glendale to celebrate Arizona-grown melons of all types. Glendale watermelon and vegetable grower Rala Singh was so proud of his 53-pound watermelon that he took its picture.

Patti Marks of Glendale won the coveted title of Arizona Melon Queen in June 1955. Here she poses in the midst of a Valley melon field that is part of some 30,000 acres devoted to melon crops. Melons were a big business locally for many years. One of the duties of the queen was to promote Arizona-grown melons in the East, including Washington, D.C. Marks presents a honey-dew melon to vice president Richard Nixon (below) while most of Arizona’s congressional delegation looks on, from left to right, that includes Rep. John Rhodes, Sen. Carl Hayden, Nixon, Marks, and Sen. Barry Goldwater.

Movie star Jeff Hunter (center) took time out from filming in January 1957 for a lube and oil change at a local garage. Twentieth Century Fox used Glendale’s downtown as the setting for The Way to the Gold starring Hunter and Sheree North. Although normal business and routine in the city was disturbed to a certain extent by the movie making, the consensus of Glendalians was that it was a great event.

Santa arrived by helicopter to the streets of Glendale in December 1957. Just after Santa “hit the ground,” hundreds of children rushed up to get a candy treat from him. Santa’s appearance was sponsored by the Glendale Auto Show and Dollar Days. The helicopter was provided by Blakely Service Stations. They were popular for their inexpensive gas and free drinking glasses (with purchase) with Arizona themes. Blakely’s and the glasses disappeared after 1967.

Demolition of the Hotel Glenwood in June 1959 brought an end to half a century of providing sleeping quarters to travelers, laborers, and others and cleared the way for a parking lot. Declared a health and fire hazard, the 22-room hotel was condemned by the city council. Built in 1909 or 1910, the Glenwood was owned and managed by Archie W. Bennett, Glendale’s first mayor. The electric trolley line from Phoenix to Glendale ended in a turn-around near the hotel. It was not uncommon for Phoenicians to ride the trolley to Glendale, sit on the Hotel’s porch “for a spell,” and then return to Phoenix. The Glenwood’s wide porches were often used as sleeping porches during the hot times of year, and sometimes they were “overflow rooms” when there were more guests than rooms. After the Park Hotel burned down in 1912, the Glenwood was the only hotel in town. Some rooms were available above a store or two, but they were few. Gradually over the years, the hotel slipped into disrepair. Finally, it was condemned as unsafe.

In January 1961, at age 77, Charlie Juncker retired after 49 years of practicing his trade in Glendale. Juncker was an expert blacksmith, specializing in electric and acetylene welding and building “any and all tools for machine or farm.” When he retired, he turned his shop over to his son August. By then, the blacksmithing business had changed as there no longer were horses to shoe or wagons to build.

Glendale city manager Stan Van de Putte (center) accepts a new 50-star flag from Mrs. Gene Harris (left) and Mrs. Robert Ryan, representing the Glendale Elks Lodge Dears. The flag was displayed in remembrance of Armistice (Veterans’) Day, November 11, 1960. For 22 years, beginning in 1960, Van de Putte served as city manager. During his tenure, Glendale matured from a farming community of 16,000 to a multifaceted city of more than 100,000.

Northwest of downtown Glendale, at Lateral 20 (Seventy-fifth Avenue) and Northern Avenue, the Salt River Project built a 596-megawatt electric generating plant, the Agua Fria Steam Generating Station. It was brought on line in 1957 and has served the area well since then.

Over many years, Glendale mounted unsuccessful efforts to build a hospital. Finally, in 1959 Mayor Byron Peck headed a successful effort to bring a hospital to Glendale. The 62-bed Northwest Hospital was built on the corner of Sixty-first and Northern Avenues. The first patients were admitted in 1960. Later it became part of the Good Samaritan system of hospitals. Today the building is no longer a hospital but is occupied by the Salvation Army.

Glendale from its beginning had a problem with streets flooding whenever there was heavy rain. Lacking adequate storm drains, streets remained flooded for days. Part of the problem was that the railroad bed effectively dammed water to form “Lake Grand” downtown. This is the flooding of Grand Avenue near the six-points intersection with Lateral 18 (Fifty-ninth Avenue) and Glendale Avenue in 1957. The Santa Fe tracks are on the left, parallel to Grand Avenue.

Glendale Community College was established in the early 1960s on 120 acres of Sahuaro Ranch. Opened to 2,000 students in 1965, its enrollment has increased to where it stands today at well over 36,000. The college offers university-transfer programs, job-related programs, and non-credit training customized to specific business needs. Its commitment to technology-enhanced learning has enabled the school to meet modern needs.

A fire on May 16, 1967, destroyed the plant, warehouse, and offices of Southwest Flour and Feed Company. In some respects the fire was beneficial to the business because it eliminated the outdated technologies of the old mill. Under the guidance of Harry Bonsall Jr., Southwest Feed and Seed Company erected a new, high-capacity electronic mill. Although they built another mill and warehouse in a different location, the Bonsalls never replaced the fire-destroyed Southwest Flour and Feed Company plant. Harry Bonsall Sr. never quite recovered from the shock of the fire that destroyed what he had built up over a 50-year period of time.

In the 1950s, many young men found summer jobs icing rail cars on Crystal Ice Company’s siding in downtown Glendale (above). Blocks of ice weighing 300 pounds were sent on a conveyor belt along the icing deck and then loaded with pointed, hooked pikes into icebox rail cars. About five and a half tons (11,000 pounds) were required to chill each car. By 1959, a giant icing machine (right) replaced the men with pikes to load the ice compartments of some 150 cars daily during harvest season. Using ice to keep produce cool as it traveled to distant markets declined in the 1960s in part because of the introduction of mechanical temperature-controlled refrigerator cars to the rolling stock of the Santa Fe Railway.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the demand for ice declined as agricultural lands were turned into urban areas and mechanically refrigerated rail cars and 18-wheelers assumed the task of transporting cooled produce. By the 1970s, the giant ice warehouses at the Crystal Ice plant in Glendale were nowhere close to being used to capacity. Indeed, on the evening of March 27, 1972, both warehouses were empty when an explosion and huge fire broke out in one of the warehouses. Soon the other one was burning, and both warehouses were destroyed. An estimated $500,000 in damage was done to the plant, including the collapse of two walls of one storage building. Seventy-five firefighters and 10 units from Glendale, Phoenix, and Luke Air Force Base fought the fire into submission over an 18-hour period. This was the beginning of the end for the Crystal Ice plant in Glendale. A second round of fiery destruction occurred in September 1972, only six months later. Today the ice-plant grounds are vacant.

When Dial-A-Ride came to Glendale in 1975, the mayor of Glendale (above) was among the first to try out the new service. The passengers, from left to right, are Betty Klass, Mayor Max Klass, and three unidentified riders. Klass served as mayor for 10 years from 1966 to 1976. During his tenure, the population of Glendale grew by 42,000 and the incorporated area of the city increased from 14 to 22 square miles. Part of Glendale’s new fleet of Dial-A-Ride buses gears up for the day’s work (below).

The Thunderbird International Balloon Race began in 1975 to raise scholarship money for the American Graduate School of International Management whose campus was the old Thunderbird Field. In the 19 years that Glendale hosted the race, it became one of the top hot-air balloon races in the country. By 1989, it had grown so large that the campus could no longer accommodate the number of entries. The race had to lift off from Glendale’s airport.