YEAR BUILT: 1953-1959

HISTORY 
Date Palm Manor Historic District is the earliest post-World War II custom housing development in Tempe. The neighborhood was also Tempe’s first residential subdivision built south of Broadway, making it the start of the redevelopment of agricultural land into residential neighborhoods in the city. The Date Palm Manor Historic District itself was redeveloped from the Valsunda Date Gardens, a commercial date grove.

Unlike more cost-effective housing developments, Date Palm Manor was already annexed by Tempe prior to development. Being annexed into the town prior to development allowed for additional amenities to be built alongside the houses such as asphalt roads, curbs, sidewalks, and utilities. The cost of the construction of these amenities was included in the lot price.

Additionally, in alignment with the community’s exclusive nature, steps were taken to ensure the privacy of the neighborhood. There are limited access points, and the houses were built along a circular street that made the houses face each other and created a sense of community.

Since the houses in Date Palm Manor were custom houses that each had their own unique design, they were twice the price of houses sold in other subdivisions in Tempe at the time. Despite this, 90% of the plots were developed within a 5-year period between when the plots started being sold in 1954 and 1959. Overall, construction dates for the houses range from 1953 to 1962 with the average date being 1956.

The Date Palm Manor was an exclusive, upscale development and attracted important members of the Tempe community. Many of Tempe’s prominent families – such as Carl T. Hayden’s nephew Hayden C. Hayden and his wife Catherine “Biddy” Hayden – and other affluent community members – such as artist John Nelson and numerous Arizona State University faculty—relocated to Date Palm Manor.

The Date Palm Manor neighborhood was designated a Historic District and added to the Tempe Historic Property Register on May 28^th, 2009. The neighborhood was also added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 15^th, 2015.

ARCHITECTURE 
The houses in Date Palm Manor Historic District were mostly built in the Modern Ranch style. Since the houses were custom built, their sizes vary, averaging 1,900 square feet, making them 32% larger than the typical 1950s home.

Most of the houses were constructed with concrete blocks, however, there are few that were constructed with brick and there’s a singular wood-frame house. The house exteriors typically display more than one material and make use of brick, wood, metal, and stone elements.

While the houses display the classic characteristics of a Ranch style house – an elongated façade, concrete slab foundation, steel casements windows, and asphalt shingle roof—they vary in materials and treatments. There are several variants of the Ranch style with the most prominent being the French Provincial Ranch style.

Two houses in the neighborhood are not in the Ranch style but instead represent the Contemporary and Split-Level house styles.

A unique feature to this neighborhood is that the streets are lined with evenly spaced date palms. Many of these date palms were a part of the original Valsunda Date Garden. However, some of them have been replaced due to deterioration.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Date Palm Manor Historic District Research Report. Tempe Historic Preservation Office. 2008

National Register of Historic Places Nomination. Date Palm Manor Historic District. September 10, 2014.

Ordinance No. 2009.12. City of Tempe. May 28, 2009.

Staff Summary Report 2009.2742.0029. Tempe Historic Preservation Office. February 2009.

RELATED DOCUMENTS
Answers to Neighbors' Questions: 2 August 2008