Glendale, Arizona

• 1. Introduction

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  Glendale, Arizona sits right on the edge of Phoenix, a desert city of nearly a quarter million people that began not with a town plan or a government grant, but with one man's debt. William John Murphy, originally from New Hartford, New York, finished building a 40-mile canal through the Sonoran desert in 1885 and found himself owed nothing but stock, bonds, and land. What he did with that land would reshape the western edge of the Phoenix metropolitan area for generations. How does a place born from financial desperation become a stadium city, a spring training hub, and a brief host to the largest concert tour in history? That is the story Glendale tells.

• 2. Canal, Colony, and Cotton

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  Murphy's 40-mile Arizona Canal ran from Granite Reef to New River for the Arizona Canal Company, and water was the first thing that made Glendale possible. Finishing the canal left Murphy in debt because he had agreed to be paid in company stock, bonds, and land rather than cash. His answer was the Arizona Improvement Company, formed in 1887, which he used to sell land and water rights south of the canal to outside investors and settlers.

  To draw people to his tract, Murphy built an 18-mile diagonal road he named Grand Avenue, connecting Phoenix through Glendale to Peoria. The name "Glendale" was his own invention for the new town. In 1891, Burgess Hadsell partnered with Murphy to bring 70 Brethren and River Brethren families into the area, forming a temperance colony built around a ban on alcoholic beverages. That reputation for sobriety kept attracting like-minded settlers through the 1890s.

  By 1895, Murphy had platted the original town site: bounded by Lamar Road to the south, 55th Avenue to the east, Myrtle Avenue to the north, and 59th Avenue to the west. He added a park and business lots and also exchanged land along Grand Avenue for the right-of-way that allowed a railroad to run between Prescott and Phoenix, giving settlers a way to ship goods north and receive building materials from outside.

  World War I proved unexpectedly profitable for Glendale's farms. Cotton prices rose sharply during the war years, and cotton has remained part of Glendale's agricultural economy ever since. Farms stretching along the Loop 101 corridor still grow cotton today, even as many farmers have shifted to more profitable crops. The high wartime demand for food also kept orchards thriving through the early 1900s.

• 3. Sugar, Industry, and Growth

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  A Beet Sugar Factory opened in Glendale in 1906 and pulled a new wave of immigrant and migrant workers into the area. The factory ran only until 1913, but its commercial footprint seeded a broader local economy. Businesses that arose around the same period included the Glendale Ice Company, Pacific Creamery Company, Glendale Milling Company, and Southwest Flour and Feed.

  World War II brought a different kind of industry. In late 1940, a group that included Hollywood actors and businessmen, headed by Leland Hayward, approached the Army to establish a primary flight training school outside Phoenix. They picked the site that became Thunderbird Field specifically because of its open space, reliable weather, and clear visibility. While Thunderbird Field was under construction in 1941, the Army was simultaneously spending $4.5 million on a larger nearby installation, Luke Field, named after Lt. Frank Luke Jr., the first pilot to receive a Medal of Honor.

  Thunderbird Field eventually converted to civilian higher education purposes and became the Thunderbird American Graduate School for International Management, later absorbed by Arizona State University as its Thunderbird School of Global Management. The military presence at Luke Air Force Base, now one of Glendale's largest employers with roughly 5,100 workers, combined with rapid postwar population growth. Between 1950 and 1960, Glendale nearly doubled in population, generating immediate demand for utilities, parks, schools, and streets. Over the following four decades, the city added a landfill, water treatment plant, sewage plants, libraries, an airport, a city hall, and a civic center.

• 4. Stadiums and Entertainment

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  State Farm Stadium opened its doors to the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League in 2006, and the annual Fiesta Bowl college football game moved there in 2007. Both had previously played at Mountain America Stadium on the Arizona State University campus in Tempe. Architect Peter Eisenman designed the facility, which was featured on the History Channel series Modern Marvels partly because of its roll-out natural grass field. Since opening, State Farm Stadium has hosted three Super Bowls, three college football national championship games, the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four, WrestleMania XXVI, and International Champions Cup soccer.

  Desert Diamond Arena next door, which has operated under several names including Glendale Arena, Jobing.com Arena, and Gila River Arena, was the longtime home of the Arizona Coyotes of the NHL. It also housed the now defunct Arizona Sting of the National Lacrosse League, and in the summer of 2010 hosted the first-ever Street League Skateboarding event. The arena now hosts the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League.

  In 2009, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox began sharing Camelback Ranch-Glendale for Major League Baseball spring training. The complex is owned and operated by the City of Glendale. Both arenas and State Farm Stadium are part of the Glendale Sports and Entertainment District development plan focused on the Yucca district, an area that was sparsely inhabited before the venues arrived.

  The most unusual chapter in Glendale's sports and entertainment history came in March 2023. The mayor and city council formally renamed Glendale as Swift City on the 17th and 18th of that month to mark the opening concerts of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour at State Farm Stadium. The Westgate Entertainment District put up welcoming messages, and local restaurants introduced Swift-themed menu items.

• 5. A Shifting Population

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  The 2020 census counted 248,325 people living in Glendale, spread across 86,483 households. The city covers 65.1 square miles, of which only 0.4 square miles is water, and the New River and Agua Fria River both pass through its western edges. Population density reached 4,031.5 people per square mile.

  The racial and ethnic composition shifted substantially over two decades. In 2000, non-Hispanic white residents made up nearly 65 percent of the population. By 2020, that share had fallen to just over 43 percent. Hispanic or Latino residents grew from about 25 percent in 2000 to nearly 40 percent by 2020, reaching 97,617 people. Black or African American residents rose from 4.5 percent to 7.2 percent over the same span.

  Median household income for the 2016-2020 period was estimated at $56,991. The median family income was $65,763. About 12.7 percent of families and 17.2 percent of the overall population lived below the poverty line, including 26.1 percent of children under 18. The percent of residents with a bachelor's degree or higher was estimated at 14.8 percent.

  The average household held 3.0 people and the median age in 2020 was 34.5 years. In 2010, the median age had been 31, suggesting that Glendale's population is gradually aging even as it diversifies. Luke Air Force Base, Banner Health, and Arrowhead Towne Center are the city's three largest employers, together accounting for more than 10,000 jobs.

• 6. Growth, Housing, and Controversy

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  Arrowhead Towne Center opened in 1993 and transformed the surrounding neighborhood, known as Arrowhead Ranch, into one of the valley's busiest shopping and housing corridors. The completion of Loop 101 linked Glendale more directly to the broader Phoenix metropolitan area, and Loop 303's completion in 2011 drew new industrial development to the city's edges. Plans for the VAI Resort and Mattel Adventure Park, set to open in 2027, are expected to add more than a thousand hotel rooms and hundreds of jobs.

  In 2024, Glendale's approach to managing its own growth became the subject of national attention. The city contacted the Department of Defense to lobby Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs to veto bipartisan state legislation that would have increased housing supply across Arizona. Ryan Lee, the city's intergovernmental-programs director, confirmed to journalist Jerusalem Demsas of The Atlantic that he was the person behind the request but declined further comment. Demsas suggested the Pentagon was acting as a favor to a locally-minded government, citing the proximity of Luke Air Force Base as a likely rationale. State Representative Analise Ortiz, whose district covers parts of Glendale, criticized the maneuver directly: "This is not the way we typically go about creating policy."