It's Foothill Park! Presley originally named their development in the foothills of South Mountain, "Foothill Park". That's what might be expected from a company that named the homes it built in California, "California Homes", and those in Arizona, "Arizona Homes". Without the modest creativity shown, it might well have been "Foothill Homes".

Then they had a right brain flash of inspiration, "Why not name it after the Ahwatukee Ranch we just purchased to build our project on?" So they did. It didn't hurt that they thought that word meant "shining home of dreams". It does not.

Casa de Sueños in 1942, after it became Ahwatukee. This dream house had a bell tower (at the right). The home was located at what is now the corner of Seqouia Trail and Appaloosa Drive, south of Equestrian Trail. Click on the image to toggle to the location today—note the hills in the background, and the vigas protruding from the wall at the center mimicked (intentionally?) on the house there now.It's Casa de Sueños! "Home of Dreams" is the correct translation for the name of the home at the ranch which became Ahwatukee, but that word isn't Ahwatukee. Dr. W.V.B. Ames—the guy that built the home back in 1921—named it "Casa de Sueños" because he knew rudimentary Español (casa = house; sueños = dreams; do the de yourself). And, it truly was a House of Dreams.

Dr. Ames, a Chicago dentist, was a millionaire, an inventor and the owner of the W.V.B. Ames Company of Ohio, makers of dental cement. He intended to use the ranch he purchased for $4 an acre as a winter residence. By the time the home was completed on Thanksgiving, 1921, he had spent $50,000 on it—back when an average new home cost $6,296, a new Chevrolet was $525, and the average annual income was $2,160.

The Ames' new winter home had 17 rooms plus seven bathrooms, and four fireplaces. Forget walk-in closets; the kitchen had a walk-in refrigerator. The main section served as the living quarters for the Ames and their guests, and included a master bedroom, several guest rooms, a dining room, a billiards room, and that kitchen. The second section contained the servants' quarters. There was a second house for the caretaker and handyman. He might have been called the ranch manager, but there really was no ranch to manage. The property functioned solely as winter residence for its owners.

Sadly for Mr. Ames, his dreams soon became permanent. He died three months after the house was completed. His widow continued to use the ranch as a winter residence over the next dozen years. We know her name only by adding Mrs. onto the name of her husband—not uncommon for the time and several decades that followed. We can tell you the name of her chauffeur and companion over those dozen years (Marion Jones), since that was apparently more important to reporters of the time than Mrs. Ames' name.

Miss Helen Brinton in her riding clothes, in front of the ranch house. You'd now recognize her instantly, wouldn't you?Prior to her death, Mrs. Ames gave a portion of the property to the City of Phoenix, which added it to the South Mountain Park Preserve. If she wanted her house preserved, she should have given that to the city too. But, she didn't. She willed the rest to St. Lukes Hospital. They sold it to Miss Helen Brinton in 1935. Miss Brinton had a ton of money she inherited from her father, the owner of a couple of plow companies, and plenty of time to spend it. Miss Brinton wintered at the San Marcos Hotel in Chandler before acquiring the property (as did the Ames). Miss Brinton was familiar with the property since she already owned several parcels of land near the ranch.

Following the purchase of the property, Miss Helen Brinton returned to her summer home in Dixon, Illinois. When the weather turned cold, she traveled to Big Horn, Wyoming, to spend part of the winter on a ranch her brother owned, as she had done for many years before her Arizona purchase. Her brother had chosen Florida for his winter retreat, but it would be his last and Miss Brinton inherited that ranch—a working ranch with cattle, cowboys & everything—as well. She got rid of the cattle, but kept the cowboys, putting them to work building stone walls. At Big Horn she became familiar with the Crow Indians. After her death, her home in Big Horn was turned into the Brinton Museum, which holds an extensive collection of western art, Indian artifacts and a lot of stone walls.

It's Ahwatukee! Miss Brinton is credited with changing the property's name from Casa de Sueños to "Ahwatukee". We assume that those giving Miss Brinton credit for changing the name assumed that she was translating Casa de Sueños to Crow. If so, she might not have been a very good translator. According to those using the official Crow dictionary, the term for house of dreams is "baashíale" or "balewaashíale", either of which would be a bit difficult to contort into "Ahwatukee". The Crow term "awe chuuke" is much closer and could easily be written as "Ahwatukee" if one were only hearing it pronounced. The term actually means "land on the other side of the hill"—which Ahwatukee most assuredly is to the majority of people in the valley who live in Phoenix. It is quite possible (we'll say likely) that Miss Brinton knew what she was doing. Maybe it wasn't really her dream house and it was just on the other side of the hill. But that's not likely to sell as many homes.

What happened to the house? Miss Brinton made a number of changes to the house. Modernization was not one if them. She would not allow a telephone or radio in it. But, she had a few notable guests—like John Wayne, Glenn Ford, and Bert Parks. She died in 1970, leaving the property to her nieces. It changed hands a few times ending up with the Presley Development Company of Arizona.

A drawing of the Ahwatukee Foothills Village from the City of Phoenix 2020 brochure. It is an unusual developer that has an interest in preserving a rundown old home that could be replaced by four, five or more homes that could be sold. Presley is said to have considered making the house into a public attraction, but concluded that interest in the original home as a museum did not justify renovation costs. They dismantled it starting around 1975. They allowed people in the immediate vicinity to salvage parts of it. Redwood from the house was taken to the Lady of Guadalupe Church where is is still used to display statuary. Don't you want to know who got the bell?

It's Ahwatukee Foothills! At this point a little groveling may be in order. "Foothills" has returned to the name. Maybe those Presley people really knew how to name a subdivision. Other subdivisions—Mountain Park Ranch, Lakewood, and gasp! The Foothills (more groveling)—opened during the 1980s, and still more followed. In 1987 the area south of South Mountain was annexed by Phoenix. In 1991 the City of Phoenix designated 35.8 square miles (including the original Ahwatukee) as the Village of Ahwatukee Foothills.

35.8 square miles—just how large is that? It's 6.9% of the area of Phoenix, which is 13.5 square miles larger than Manhattan, about 10 square miles larger than South Mountain Park, but 4.2 square miles smaller than Walt Disney World in Florida. It's also larger than 25 countries, like Sint Maarten, Monaco and Vatican City, and 22 others you've probably never heard of. So now you know.

Sources:

Aronson, Alex, Country Living, "Here's What Things Cost 100 Years Ago", July 30, 2020.

Brinton Museum, The, "The Brintons".

City of Phoenix, Ahwatukee Foothills Village, 2020.

GenealogyBuff.com, "HISTORY OF AHWATUKEE—Ahwatukee, Arizona", posted April 12, 2016.

Leonhard, Mary, Arizona Republic, The, p. K-1, "Ahwatukee, a place of special places", June 6, 1976.

Rodriguez, Nadine Arroyo, KJZZ.org, "Did You Know: The Word 'Ahwatukee' Has No Meaning", July 10, 2015.

Thompson, Clay, The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, "Lost in translation, Ahwatukee's name was born", January 5, 2015.

Thompson, Clay, The Arizona Republic, p. D-2, "'House of Dreams' key to Ahwatukee", July 28, 2008.

Wikipedia, "Ahwatukee, Phoenix".

Wikipedia, "List of countries and dependencies by area".

Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Ohio, Guide to Fremont and Sandusky County, August 1, 1939.

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Elvis 1956: on the cover of his first album. 1958: sent to Germany by the US Army.The Presley cousins were both good looking kids. Elvis stood out in his Memphis, Tennessee, high school, and his appearance would help launch his performing career. Elvis became a rock & roll phenomena in 1956 with the release of his first album and his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. He was drafted two years later—a move his manager estimated would cost the government at least half a million dollars in income taxes a year.

Randall Presley, 16 years senior to Elvis, grew up in Pensacola, Florida, where he became a construction worker for his home-builder uncle. He then moved to New York to put his good looks to work for him as a model—until the army called. The government's loss of tax revenue from Randall's enlistment was negligible.

The army sent Private Presley to Germany where he was introduced to amphetamines and karate. It discharged him as a sergeant two years later. Elvis returned to waiting record, movie and television commitments which had been suspended by the draft.

Williams a few years after Randall's time there.The Army Air Corps sent Randall to Williams Field in Arizona (later Williams Air Force Base, and now Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport) to train him as a bombadier and pilot. He became an award-winning pilot and then a flight instructor at Thunderbird Field (near Luke Air Force Base) in Glendale, Arizona, and at a base in Orange County, California.

When Randall was discharged as a Captain in 1946 following the close of World War II he was 27—two years older than his famous cousin when he was discharged 14 years later. The army held onto its soldiers longer during wartime than in the Cold War era of the 1950's. Randall had a real estate career waiting for him because he had studied for his real estate broker's license during his service. The influence of Arizona and Californa would be seen in where Randall chose to practice his chosen career.

A 1955 Presley home in Bakersfield, California, 57 years later [2012 Google Map photo], and a classified advertisement when it was the model home for a 33 home subdivision.
[Click or tap on the picture to make the ad larger/smaller.]Randall saw opportunities where the army had sent him, and he chose Bakersfield, California, to begin his career as a newly minted broker. Classified ads show that Randall started as a typical real estate broker—selling property owned by others for a commission. With the pent-up demand for homes in the late 40's, the supply of existing houses was limited. Randall purchased of 3 acres of land, constructed 12 homes on the property and stepped into subdividing and home building. Randall also offered to build homes on land the buyer already had—or which his real estate company sold them.

In 1950 Elvis was 15, taking guitar lessons and working as an usher at Loew's State Theater in Memphis. The army was 8 years ahead of him. Randall was 4 years past his army days and selling more than 100 houses a year.

Building homes was becoming the major part of Randall's business. He continued subdividing progressively-larger parcels, and building more and more homes. A few years later, the subdivisions were getting big enough that full page articles were written about them in the Bakersfield newspaper. A 33 home subdivision got special attention for its significant size.

Business was very good in Bakersfield, but Randall was ambitious and he began to look around. "Every morning," he said, "I'd get up early, start in Oxnard and go all the way down into Orange County. I checked every community, every property and every model home to see what was built where, and what market conditions were."

Randall started building houses under the name "California Homes" as he moved beyond Bakersfield. Classified ads indicate that at first he built homes on lots that the home buyer already owned. Rather than set up his own sales offices, he franchised real estate brokers to sell the California Homes to home shoppers who might have purchased lots from them. In a few years Presley subdivisions could also be found in Orange County—which is the location of the city of Newport Beach where his company's headquarters would eventually move.

The Presleys:  Elvis & Priscilla; Randall & Cece.In 1958 Randall's wife died, leaving him the single father of three young children. In 1961 Cecilia "Cece" DeMille, the granddaughter of Cecil B. DeMille (the director-producer-Hollywood legend), was also a single parent. One day in Newport Beach, Cece spotted Randall and whispered to her sister, "Look at that guy!" In six months they were married.

The year before Randall met Cece, Elvis met Priscilla Beaulieu. They were in Germany. Elvis courted Priscilla for seven years, and married her in 1967. They had one child, Lisa Marie, and were divorced in 1973. Randall and Cece's six month courtship resulted in a marriage that would last 51 years, until Randall's death.

A 1970 ad for three California projects, and a 1972 ad for two Arizona projects. In the late '50s and throughout the '60s Elvis was making movies—lots of them. By 1969, Elvis had 31 feature films under his belt. At the same time Randall had been making subdivisions—lots of them. By 1969, Randall had 50 California subdivisions under his belt.

As Randall built more and more homes, the center of his business shifted away from Bakersfield. In 1963 he moved his family and his business headquarters 170 miles south to Newport Beach. He was building subdivision after subdivision. He had also expanded beyond California. In 1969, the Presley Development Company had offices in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Illinois, Virginia, and Washington D.C. Randall decided that it was time to take his company public.

Randall's first Arizona venture was also in 1969. The name he chose for those homes should come as no surprise: "Arizona Homes". He acquired 100 acres of land west of Phoenix, near a John F. Long development of very inexpensive homes. The Arizona Homes subdivision on those 100 acres offered home buyers a slightly upscale alternative. This was followed in short order by Parkside Estates at 65th Avenue and West Camelback.

The Arizona projects followed Randall's typical approach of locating near an existing subdivision and offering competitive options. And, although the Presley companies were developing subdivisions and selling homes, they didn't actually build the homes. They subcontracted out the actual construction. Randall explained how he made this work, "What you do is set the standards and make darn sure they’re followed!"

Ahwatukee 1975
[Click or tap for larger/smaller floorplans.] A third Arizona project opened in a section of a rather unusual subdivision: The Lakes of Tempe. It was unusual because until they broke ground for the 322 acre project in 1970, Tempe had no lakes. In addition, a number of home developers shared the subdivision, building homes in various sections. Like the other two Arizona projects, this followed Randall's typical approach.

Then came Ahwatukee. Randall heard that land south of South Mountain might be available. When options on the land of a Florida company expired in 1971, Randall stepped in and acquired it and other adjacent property. In total he acquired 2,010 acres from 10 landowners.

Randall envisioned Foothill Park—the original name for the project—as a golf course retirement community. The land acquired was much greater than typical projects and to commit the full area to retirement homes would require extrordinary sales success in an area distant from most retirement home were being sold in the state. Randall decided to hedge his bet by expanding the offerings to include adult, retirement and family homes.

There was no existing subdivision anywhere near the property. There was a new freeway—an unconnected section of what would become Interstate 10. By the time that the models opened, it would be connected with the Maricopa Freeway coming from Phoenix and branching off with the newly constructed Supersition Freeway.

The name was change to "Ahwatukee", taking the name of the larger of two ranches acquired in the land transactions. The golf course was completed in 1972. The recreation center and seventeen model homes soon followed. With no buildings along this part of the freeway, the golf course, model homes, and the recreation center were all within easy view of passing motorists. The state had even built an offramp at Elliot Road.

Randall Presley, publicity photo. The hair may be a family trait the cousins share.Randall described the Ahwatukee project as the largest and riskiest of his career. He said of the project, "You’re breaking open a whole new area of land. No one had gone close to South Mountain, which was kind of a dividing point with the city of Phoenix. We didn’t have utilities, and had to go on a little bit of faith that we could get those things."

An additional 640 acres at the base of South Mountain Park were added to the initial property as an eventual custom home section in the mid-1970s. In the late 1970's the housing market cooled but the economy improved in the 80's and sales took off. By 1984, Ahwatukee houses were selling at better than one per day.

In 1984 Randall turned 65. He said, "I had been doing it for 38 years and I was done." He sold his company to the Pacific Lighting Corporation, and he was out of the housing business.

By this time you may be wondering, exactly what connection did Elvis have with Ahwatukee? Randall clarified this in an interview when he was asked about his famous cousin. Presley laughed, "I never met him or had any desire to." So the answer is nothing. It was merely a ploy to get you to read further. And it worked—didn't it?

Elvis died on August 15, 1977, from a drug overdose. He was 42. Randall died on April 12, 2012, from pneumoia. He was 93.

Sources:

Arizona Republic, The, p. K-20, "The Lakes growing with Valley", June 18, 1972.

Arizona Republic, The, p. K-1 (123), "Ahwatukee master-planned for 8,400 homes", April 29, 1973.

Chicago Tribune, "Randall Presley dies at 93; one of California's top home builders".

Gibson, Martin W., Images of America: Phoenix's Ahwatukee-Foothills, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2006.

Gibson, Marty, "Randall Presley: Ahwatukee visionary", Ahwatukee Foothills News. [Source of Randall Presley quotes.]

Google Maps, 1201 Shattuck Avenue, Bakersfield, California.

Los Angeles Times; "Randall Presley dies at 93; one of California's top home builders".

Nelson, Valerie J., "Randall E Presley 1919-2012 Prolific bulder of subdivisions", The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California", April 26, 2012, p. AA4.

Smith, Grant, "Foothill community of 23,000 planned", The Arizona Republic, p. C-1 (21), July 7, 1971.

Thompson, Clay, The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, "Lost in translation, Ahwatukee's name was born", January 5, 2015.

tucson.com, "Dec. 21, 1957: Elvis Presley is drafted".

OCR, "Movie royalty lives, gives in O.C.".

Wikipedia, "Ahwatukee, Phoenix".

Wikipedia, "Randall Presley".

Wikipedia, "Elvis Presley".

Wikipedia, "Cecil B. DeMille"

Wikipedia, "Interstate 10 in Arizona."

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The prison site in 2021, looking much as it did in 1973—except for the 202 freeway and Costco truck in the background.As a city grows it needs places to house all of its new residents—like Ahwatukee. It also needs places to house the wrong-doers it wants to keep off of the streets—like prisons.

In the early 1970's, the legislature was keenly aware of the need for new prisons, and it set aside $5.1 million to build a medium security prison for youthful offenders. The State Department of Corrections decided that the ideal place to locate the new prision was on 320 acres the state already owned in what is now officially dubbed the Ahwatukee Foothills.

It was close enough to the city to have access to a labor market. At the same time there were no neighbors to object to the possiblilty of escaped prisoners roaming the neighborhood, or those that might be viewed as undesirables visiting the facility. So, it was pretty much a done deal. Or so they thought.

They had forgotten about the Gila River Indian Reservation, bordering on south side of Pecos Road and diagonally northward on the west to the Salt and Gila Rivers. It's one thing to have the state's largest garbage dump—the most tastily named Butterfield Landfill—within 5 miles from their western border. It's quite another to put a prison within 3½ miles from the St. John's Mission and the many homes surrounding it. They also forgot about Laveen, just 4 miles away. Neither wanted a prison that close to them. But it was the tribe that held a trump card: the electrical, water, and sewer lines would have to go across reservation land. The tribal council could withhold the easements.

The sign shows the subdivisions adjacent to the state-owned property which was chosen for prison expansion. Then they heard from Chandler, whose western border was then about 13 miles away. Chandler wasn't objecting to the prison. They wanted it closer so the city could benefit from the employment and need for services the prison offered. They proposed a better site on the southwest corner of Elliott and Ellsworth roads, a couple of miles outside Chandler's northeast borders.

Situation solved! In February, 1974, the State Department of Corrections announced that there was to be no Ahwatukee prison. And everyone lived happily everafter.

Or maybe not. The land remains undeveloped 47 years later (and we presume, still state-owned), and ready for whatever use the legislature may make of it.

Sources:

BiggestUSCities.com, "Phoenix, Arizona Population History 1950 - 2019".

Dylan, Bob, YouTube.com, "The Times They Are A Changin'", 1964.

Gibson, Marty, EastValley.com, "Our state has had some good years, leading to the development of Ahwatukee, part two", September 14, 2015.

Schwartz, John L., The Arizona Republic, p. B-1, "S. Mountain prison plan dropped; Chandler studied", February 15, 1974.

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Wright would eventually execute the drawing above for a project which would tie him to the state for decades to come. But, it was not the project that brought him to Arizona.

The Arizona Biltmore designed by a former draftsman of Wright. More Wright touches were added over the years, including a 1973 renovation in which Wright's widow Olgivanna assisted in adding a stained glass design of his. [2004 photo by E. Doney.]Wright was set on the road to recovery by a New Year's phone call from his former draftsman, Albert Chase McArthur. McArthur was the chief architect for the luxury resort Biltmore Hotel then being built in the backyard of the Phoenix mansion of William Wrigley—the chewing gum Wrigley. Wright was so desperate for work that he accepted a consulting job which, under the contract's terms, did not allow him to claim credit for the design—an anathema to the world's most famous architect.

Things began to fall apart almost immediately. McArthur had contacted Wright because he wanted to use a concrete block system on which he believed Wright held the patent. McArthur soon discovered that Wright did not hold a patent, and worse, that Wright was alienating McArthur's associates. The association lasted only four months, sufficient for Wright's name to be inescapably associated with the Biltmore and McArthur's to become a mere footnote.

Dr. Chandler built the San Marcos Hotel in 1912-13 as a winter destination for America's celebrities, industrialists, politicians and businessmen—and the headquarters for his business interests. [Tap/click on the image to see the good doctor.]Dr. Chandler at 28 when he was Arizona's Veterinary Surgeon, perhaps looking into his future as Chandler's revered founder, achieved through a water rights scheme no less remarkable than that dramatized in the movie Chinatown. [Tap/click on the image to see the hotel.] Still, Wright did quite well from his brief association with the Biltmore: he received a lot of publicity and an introduction to Dr. A.J. Chandler.

Dr. A.J. Chandler was the most influential veterinarian Arizona ever had. He was a Canadian trained veterinarian who at 28 had a very well paying job in Detroit, Michigan, at the D. M. Ferry Seed Company, developers of alfalfa and other crop seeds for cattle feed. In 1887 representatives for the Arizona Territory succeeded in luring him to the territory at a substantial cut in pay. He was to head the Livestock Sanitary Board and oversee the growing cattle industry.

He worked in that position for five years, but when he resigned, it became clear that his interests had not been in cattle, but in the acquisition of the land that fed them, and more importantly, the water rights. By 1904 his holdings included 18,000 acres and a canal company—and that was just a start. A low paid public servant couldn't afford such purchases, but he had backers that just happened to be the owners of the seed company where he once worked. The land transactions were somewhat complicated, as described in a periodic presentation by the Chandler Museum whose title says it all, "Dr. Chandler and the Land Fraud that Built the Valley".

Chandler, the doctor and the town, became beneficiaries of the scheme's profits when the San Marcos Hotel was completed in 1913. more

Wright, his wife Olgivanna and her daughters Svetlana and Iovanna in a Packard Deluxe Eight, with Camp Ocotillo in the background. 1929. more

more

more

Sources:

Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, "Historic Chandler properties you need to see", July 11, 2016.

Bulter, Mike, Ahwatukee Foothills News, "Depression scuttled Frank Lloyd Wright’s plans for East Valley, Ahwatukee", December 1, 2016.

Bulter, Mike, EastValley.com, "Vision, audacity – and land fraud – helped Chandler build Valley", October 1, 2017.

Bulter, Mike, EastValley.com, "Frank Lloyd Wright, A.J. Chandler worked to remake East Valley", October 17, 2016.

Chandler High School, "History of Chandler High School", [accessed January 26, 2016].

ChandlerPedia, Chandler Museum, "Chandler, Alexander J. (A.J.)", December 22, 2014.

Crago, Jody, Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, "Chandler History: Why Dr. A.J. Chandler came to Arizona", July 3, 2014.

Minneapolis Morning Tribune, p. 1 "U.S. Dismisses Action Against Wright and Olga", December 1, 2016.

Schulhauser, Randal, HikeArizona.com, "In search of the Wright stuff!".

Sisson, Patrick, New York Magazine, Curbed.com, "On the road with Frank Lloyd Wright", June 8, 2017.

Society of Architectural Historians, SAH Archipedia, "Arizona Biltmore Hotel", [Accessed January 26, 2016].

Wikipedia, "Ocotillo Desert Camp".

Wikipedia, "San Marcos Hotel".

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