Phoenix Homestead Records and Photographs

The Phoenix Homestead Historic District was part of the federal government's program to resettle disadvantaged farmers and unemployed urban workers to planned, part time subsistence farm projects. This experimental program was initiated by Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Administration in 1933. The Phoenix Homesteads were established in two sections on a piece of land originally known as the Baxter Tract, located approximately four miles east and north of downtown Phoenix (just north of Thomas and 27th Street).

The first section, known as the Rural Homes of Arizona, was located on the southern forty acres of the Baxter Tract. This land was subdivided into forty lots; twenty-five homes were built in this section in 1935. The homes were designed by Phoenix architect Robert T. Evans, who used locally available adobe materials and the regional pueblo revival style in his plans. Lots were large enough to allow a family to grow a significant portion of their food in a garden and orchard and to keep chickens and a cow. Residents in this section were to work part time in the city and part time on the farm.

The second section, known as the Arizona Part Time Farms, was located to the north. It included a community building on a commons and thirty-five homes on small lots clustered in a T shape. Homes in this section were designed by Vernon deMars, a San Francisco architect who served as supervising architect of the western division of the Resettlement Administration. DeMars also made use of adobe materials and the pueblo revival style. Residents of this section operated a cooperative dairy with 160 head of cattle pastured on land near Indian School and 28th Street.

The entire resettlement program was disbanded in 1942. Considerable national debate regarding the cooperative farms caused the project to be labeled by some as socialistic or even Communistic. Surviving residents, however, remember their lives in the Homestead area as far better than many: they had independence, decent homes, ample food, and a good environment for growing families.