Get to Know Litchfield Park, Arizona
Get to Know Litchfield Park, Arizona
By Meredeth Stucky
100 year Celebration coming in 2017
The City of Litchfield Park is a beautiful city within 3.3 square miles, located just 15 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona. Mr. Litchfield designed this community 99 years ago with wide boulevards lined with now towering palm trees and beautiful orange trees. It features a quaint downtown with a choice of restaurants, a busy county library, and a recreation center with a pool. There are dentists, financial planners, relators, a lawyer, a gym, hairdressers, martial arts lessons, and a barber.
Of the 5,759 residents the median age is 44.2 and 45% have a college degree. The median household income is $77,481, seventh in the state of Arizona. Litchfield Park was designed for sustainability with houses of all sizes. There are apartments, condominiums, patio homes, small homes, homes on the golf course, gated community homes, and million dollar homes, all with the median home value in 2014 of $288,900.
Mr. Paul W. Litchfield would have been proud of his City when it received the 2014 Movoto’s rating as the #1 “Place to Live in Arizona”.
Litchfield Park has twelve miles of winding pathways and over thirty-five acres of parks, a six acre fishing lake, and open spaces surround the AAA Four-Diamond Wigwam Resort and its 54 holes of golf. This 1918 historic resort is known as an “oasis in the desert.” The Wigwam is a partner with the City and welcomes the local community to its golf courses, tennis, restaurants, and events.
Litchfield Elementary School, started in 1917, is an A+ school with successful students and many awards. Mr. Litchfield built the St. Thomas Aquinas Mission Church in 1919 and The Church at Litchfield Park, inter-denominational, in 1939. There is also St. Peters Episcopal Church and the Church of Latter Day Saints.
Litchfield Park has become known for its award winning special events, concerts, festivals, and celebrations that take place over the year. Of the more than twenty events annually the City has been honored for their 25th Anniversary of Incorporation event, Christmas in the Park, the spring Fine Art and Culinary Festival, The Native American Fine Arts Festival, and the six, free Arts in the Park outdoor concerts. Over the past 45 years upwards of 100,000 have come annually to enjoy the fall Library Festival of the Arts held each November.
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio founded this beautiful community in 1917 during WWI and because of the boll weevil infestation in the south. Mr. Litchfield was looking to grow long-staple cotton for cord in his newly patented tire. He bought 16,000 acres, laid out the town of Litchfield Park, and began to grow cotton. Goodyear owned Litchfield Park as a company town for 70 years. Litchfield Park was Incorporated as a City in 1987. It’s a great story stay tuned for more.
Sources:
www.litchfield-park.org
