C1400

•  The Hohokam culture disappears in the Tempe area in the 14th and 15th centuries.

1700 

•  Spanish missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino names and maps the Rio de Salado (Salt River).

1848

•  The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The treaty gives all of present-day Arizona north of the Gila River to the United States.

1854

•  With ratification of the Gadsden Purchase, land south of the Gila River is purchased and becomes part of the United States, April 25, 1854.

1863

•  The Organic Act creating Arizona as a separate territory is signed by President Lincoln on February 24, 1863.

1865

•  Fort McDowell established on the lower Verde River, east of the Salt River Valley.

1866

•  Former soldier John Y. T. Smith gets a contract to supply hay for soldiers' horses and mules. Smith hired Hispanic laborers who settled near the fort to harvest wild hay from the Salt River. The next year Smith and his employees established a hay camp on the Salt River, becoming the first settlement in the Salt River Valley.

1868

• Completion of federal survey enables settlers to file homestead claims in Salt River Valley.

1870

• William Kirkland and James McKinney lead what was probably the first canal construction project in the future site of Tempe, possibly started in the late 1860s. Their canal will feed the water that powers Hayden’s Flour Mill when it opens in 1874.
  
  
• The U.S. Census reports that the Arizona Territory has a population of 9,658. The Salt River Valley had a population of 240, which included 115 Hispanics.
  
  
• In November, Charles T. Hayden and partners establish “Hayden Milling & Farming Ditch Company”
  
  
• Late in the year, a group of settlers establish the Hardy Irrigating Canal Company and begin work in the area that will become Tempe. One of the founders is John W. "Jack" Swilling, who helps to direct the project.

1871

• The Tempe Irrigating Canal Company is created in January when the Hardy Irrigating Canal Company is renamed. Three area canal building projects are combined to create the Tempe Canal system (Includes Hayden, Swilling, and Kirkland-McKinney projects and all their partners and workforce).
  
  
• On February 14, the County of Maricopa is officially established by local settlers.
  
  
• Charles T. Hayden establishes a store and freighting headquarters on the south side of the Salt River that soon comes to be known as Hayden’s Ferry. Hayden built the first structure on his homestead in October, 1871 [this is recognized as Tempe's "official" founding date, although there were already people living in the Tempe area].
  
  
• This year marks the officially recognized establishment of Tempe. The accumulated efforts to create the community, rather than a single event, mark this year as Tempe’s foundation.

1872

•  In May, a federal post office is established at Hayden’s Ferry, with J. J. Hill named postmaster. Although much of the south side of the Salt River is already known as Tempe, the name will not become fully official until the post office is renamed Tempe late in the decade.

1873

•  William H. Kirkland donates 80 acres of land near Tempe Butte to Hispanic laborers who helped construct the Kirkland-McKinney ditch. The laborers purchased lots to raise money for a church. They named their settlement San Pablo.

1874

•  Charles T. Hayden opens his milling operation using water from the Tempe Irrigating Canal.
  
  
• Tempe School District #3 is third district to be established in Maricopa County.

1877

• Hiram C. Hodge notes that there are two stores and a population of about 100 in Tempe.
  
  
• A colony of Latter-day Saints setters (aka “Mormons”) establishes the community of Lehi east of Tempe. Charles T. Hayden and other Tempe pioneers encourage their new neighbors in their efforts.

1878

•  Mesa is founded by a second colony of Mormon settlers. Encouraged by the success of Lehi, they establish their new community on the mesa-top just south that town.

1879

• The county board of supervisors grants a petition to grade a roadway south from Hayden’s Ferry – that road will be known as Mill Avenue. The graded road turns left to become 5^th Street until it reaches the community of San Pablo, then continues south on today’s College Avenue alignment until reaching Baseline Road.
  
  
• The Hayden's Ferry Post Office is renamed the Tempe Post Office.

1880

•  The Southern Pacific Railroad reaches the town of Maricopa. Tempe is now within thirty miles of access to a transcontinental railroad line.

1881

•  Phoenix is incorporated on February 5, 1881.
  
  
• The gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone takes place on October 26, 1881

1882

• A colony of Mormon settlers lead by Benjamin F. Johnson arrives in Tempe. They will settle primarily in the area around Mill Avenue between 5^th Street and University Drive. Most of these pioneers will sell their property to the Tempe Land & Improvement Company in 1887 and move to the settlement of Nephi near present-day Broadway and Dobson Roads in Mesa.

• Photo of typical Mormon family homestead in the 1880s – Pictured is the LeBaron Family from Tempe History Museum's eMuseum online collections database.

1886

•  The Territorial Normal School opens in Tempe.
  
  
• Work begins on the Orange Belt Canal, or Kyrene Ditch (best known today as the Western Canal), which runs west from the south end of the main Tempe Canal. Located halfway between Guadalupe and Elliot Roads, the canal opens up the southern lands of the Kyrene farming district all the way to the north edge of the Gila River Indian Reservation by 1891.

1888

• The Tempe Land and Improvement Company is incorporated. It will serve as one of Tempe’s most important boosters and shape the commercial development of downtown Tempe for decades to come.
  
  
• The Kyrene School District, No. 28, is established for the children of the Kyrene agricultural district (known today as south Tempe).The district’s schoolhouse is built at the northwest corner of today’s McClintock and Warner Roads.

1889

•  The Territorial Normal School is renamed the Arizona Territorial Normal School.

1890

• The Sanborn-Perris Map Company completes the first fire insurance map of Tempe’s small, but fast-growing business district centered around Mill Avenue.
  • Tempe’s 1890 map is reproduced in color at the Library of Congress website.
    
    
• Sizeable numbers of Kansas families begin to arrive in the Fall. Many of these settlers are drawn to Arizona through the promotional efforts of the Tempe Land & Improvement Company, and by the hope for better opportunities than those afforded by their home state. 
  • Follow this link to photos of some of Tempe’s settlers from Kansas in the Tempe History Museum’s eMuseum online collections database.
    
    
• Tempe’s population estimated at 700 by the Sanborn-Perris Map Company.
  
  
• Mill Avenue experiences a commercial construction boom during the decade that will reach all the way south to 6 Street. Some of the new, large buildings are referred to as blocks because they are built to house two or more businesses.

1891

• An enormous flood along the Salt River causes great damage and disruption to the communities of the Valley. The Maricopa & Phoenix Railroad bridge at Tempe is completely destroyed by the flood, disrupting the rail connection to Phoenix until the summer.
  
  
• Telephone service is established between Tempe and Phoenix. Service will expand during the 1890s, although most use appears to be government (including law enforcement), newspapers, and other commercial enterprises. Service to residential and business customers generally will not begin until near the end of the decade.

1892

• The Kibbey Decision grants Tempe land-owners rights to a guaranteed supply of water.
  
  
• Tempe Creamery begins operation. Considered the largest creamery in Arizona, the facility also produces five tons of ice daily. Reported butter production in 1895 is between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds per month. By 1896, the manufactured quantities of cheese and butter is such that owner Frederick Hough begins marketing his products to California.
  • See one of the Tempe History Museum’s oldest photos of the Tempe Creamery on the eMuseum online collections database here.

1893

•  Tempe’s population estimated at 1,100 by the Sanborn-Perris Map Company.

1894

• The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors incorporates the town of Tempe. Dr. Fenn J. Hart is named the first mayor. Incorporated Tempe is 1.8 square miles.
  • See photos of Dr. Hart and his family here using the Tempe History Museum’s eMuseum online collections database.

1894-1905

•  The Great Drought begins in the region and lasts for a decade.It was marked by years of remarkably low flow in the Salt River, the irrigation lifeline for local farms.Due to some exceptional years in the drought’s early period, there is some disagreement as to when it actually started. However, the massive flood of 1905 clearly marked the drought’s end.

1895

• Starting shortly after incorporation, Tempe’s streets are regularly graded and covered with decomposed granite, providing what is known as a macadamized pavement. This road treatment is paid from taxes collected by the new city government. The decomposed granite comes from Tempe Butte and other nearby sources.
  
  
• The Tempe Daily News becomes the town's official newspaper.
  
  
• The Maricopa & Phoenix & Salt River Valley Railroad reaches Mesa from Tempe, providing Mesa-area farmers and consumers with their first direct access to railroad service.
  
  

• On the north side of the Salt River, the Santa Fe, Prescott, and Phoenix Railroad reaches Phoenix, connecting the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad of northern Arizona to the Salt River Valley. It will be nearly a decade before this railroad’s service reaches Tempe, via the Phoenix & Eastern Railroad. 

1896

•  Tempe holds its first municipal election. One of the men elected to city council is rancher Woolf Sachs, a Jewish-Latvian pioneer. His cousin, Samuel Lukin, will be elected to Tempe’s city council in 1908, and will also serve as Tempe’s fire chief.

1898

• Dr. A. J. Chandler’s Consolidated Company completes a hydroelectric plant on the Tempe Crosscut Canal (located on the present-day Mesa Country Club just west of Country Club Road in Mesa). The plant’s location takes advantage of a 40-foot waterfall where the canal comes off the mesa-top. The initial intended use of the plant’s electricity is to power lights in Mesa, Tempe, and Phoenix.
  • View a 1930s-era photo of the Tempe Crosscut Power Plant here on Tempe History Museum’s eMuseum online collections database.

• Electric streetlights are installed in the downtown area.
  
  
• Tempe’s first concrete sidewalks are built. Several Mill Avenue business-owners contract with a Phoenix company to lay sidewalks in front of their buildings.
  
  
• The Spanish-American War is fought in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Tempe residents serve in the campaigns in Cuba and the Philippines. Some join the war’s most famous regiment, the 1^st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, better known as Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders.”

1899

• Early morning fire on November 4 destroys the Andre Block at the southeast corner of Mill Avenue and 4^th Street. Around 300 local people rally to pull items out of the burning building and form a bucket brigade to protect the town block on the west side of Mill, the nearby livery stable, and other structures endangered by high flames, burning embers, and strong winds.
  • The total loss is estimated at $15,000, or over $460,000 if adjusted to dollars in 2020.
  • The fire is regarded as one of Tempe’s largest to that time and highlights the need for a fire department.

• San Pablo’s main thoroughfare is renamed Dewey Street in honor of Admiral Dewey’s victory at Manila harbor against the Spanish Fleet in the Philippines in 1898.Although largely forgotten today, Dewey Street was practically Tempe’s second downtown and over the years was home to a variety of businesses – perhaps best known was Tempe’s Standard Bottling Works.
  
  
• The Sunset Telephone Company establishes wider phone service in Tempe for residential, business, and other customers.

1902

• Tempe's first municipal water system is completed.
  
  
• A volunteer fire department is organized in Tempe.
  
  
• Mexican-American pioneer Samuel Brown becomes the first city mayor of Hispanic ancestry (and so far remains the only Hispanic Tempean to serve as mayor). Brown remains mayor until 1903, when he resigned in order to serve as city marshal (as the chief of police was known then), a position he will occupy until 1912.

1903

•  Tempe’s Company C, of the 1^st Infantry Regiment of the Arizona National Guard, is deployed to the Clifton-Morenci mining district to help maintain order during the mining strike.

1904

•  The Phoenix & Eastern Railroad bridge is completed and opened for train service in January. Tempe is now served by two railroads, each with their own bridges crossing the Salt River (the other bridge serves the Maricopa & Phoenix Railroad).

• The new bridge is the first all-steel bridge built at the Tempe crossing. With pilings sunk 70 feet into the riverbed and a concrete foundation, the bridge seems practically indestructible.

1905

•  A massive flood in March sweeps away two spans of the new Phoenix & Eastern bridge and it is eventually abandoned. Service is re-routed to the Maricopa & Phoenix bridge to the west.

1907

• The Goodwin Opera House opens in October on 5^th Street, east of Mill Avenue. William Goodwin’s new, 500-seat theater will host entertainment ranging from plays, musical performances, traveling vaudeville shows, and beginning in 1908, movies for the enjoyment of local audiences.
  
  
• Yaqui community of Guadalupe established south of Tempe. The Yaquis, Native Americans from the Mexican state of Sonora, settle a camp with a chapel adjacent to the Catholic cemetery, known now as the Guadalupe cemetery, east of Hardy Drive and north of Baseline Road.

1909

• Tempe's first high school is constructed.

1910

• The permanent townsite of Guadalupe is mapped and becomes the home of Tempe’s Yaqui community. The town is located between Baseline and Guadalupe Roads and is centered around the Avenida del Yaqui, and it lies just a short distance southwest from their original community site near the Catholic Cemetery of Guadalupe.
  
  
• The Kent Decree established guidelines for surface water distribution rights in the Salt River Valley.
  
  
• Tempe’s total population is recorded as 3,073 by the U.S. Census. Defined as the Tempe Precinct (meaning election precinct), this total includes 1,473 residents in incorporated Tempe.

1911

• The Roosevelt Dam is completed on the Salt River.
  • Link to film of Theodore Roosevelt speaking at dedication of Roosevelt Dam, March 18, 1911 (Library of Congress link)
    
    
• Construction begins on the new bridge at Tempe for the State Highway. In local lingo, the structure is best known as the Ash Avenue Bridge.
  
  
• Tempe votes to go “dry” after a contentious election in April to decide on the question of alcohol prohibition. Tempe’s new law predates both state (1915), and Federal (1920) prohibition.

1912

• Arizona becomes the 48th state on February 14, 1912.
  
  
• Carl Trumbull Hayden is elected to the United States House of Representatives.
  
  
• Tempe's first purpose-built City Hall opens at the southwest corner of 5^th Street and Myrtle Avenue. In addition to housing the fire department, jail, and the city library, the green space between City Hall and 5^th Street is designated a public park and hosts numerous events in the coming years.

1913

•  Local ladies establish the Tempe Woman’s Club in January. The mission of the organization is to foster the cause of education and the continual betterment of Tempe overall.
  
  
• Ash Avenue Bridge completed and open to traffic in October.
  
  
• The Tempe Egyptian Cotton Growers Association forms. The organization will support & promote local efforts to grow Yuma-Egyptian long staple cotton, a high-quality, long-fiber variety of cotton with origins in Egypt which was further developed on government farms in Arizona.

1914

• The Tempe Cotton Exchange is incorporated. The organization is instrumental to the success of the Arizona cotton industry. In addition to supporting local production and marketing, the Cotton Exchange works to bring in the large numbers of laborers who will be needed at harvest time.
  
  
• The Tempe Cotton Gin is built and begins operation in September.

1914-18

• World War I is fought in Europe. After the United States enters the war in 1917, many men from Tempe will serve in the military and other services related to the conflict. Many Tempe women will serve in a variety of capacities as well, whether with the Red Cross or other service organizations.

1915

• The first municipal sewer system is constructed.
  
  
• Town Council passed Ordinance No. 108, establishing a Department of Public Works responsible for water, sewer, public buildings, parks, grounds, and repair of streets.
  
  
• Roosevelt Dam fills to capacity for the first time since the dam was completed in 1911. The Roosevelt Lake reservoir is officially declared full at 8:30 p.m. on April 14, and hundreds of people make the journey to the dam for festivities to mark the occasion.

1916

• The Yaqui is filmed in Tempe, as well as locations in Mexico. Many local residents participate as extras. The film is about a Yaqui man named Tambor who fights the repression of his people in Revolution-era Mexico. The Yaqui made its Tempe premier in May at the Goodwin Opera House.
  
  
• Standard Bottling Works opens on Dewey Street. Tempe’s most successful early bottling plant is founded by Valencia Grado, an experienced bottler from Mexico. Grado and his successors sold a variety of flavored sodas which were very popular during Tempe’s long period of prohibition and long after, finally closing its doors in the late 1940s.
  • Click here for examples of Standard Bottling Works bottles on Tempe History Museum's eMuseum online collections database.

1916-17

•  Tempe’s Company C, of the 1^st Infantry Regiment of the Arizona National Guard, is deployed to U.S.-Mexico border – the troops of this Arizona regiment will be posted to Naco, Arizona and Douglas, Texas. The Tempe guardsmen are part of the call-up of over 150,000 National Guard troops ordered to the border by the Federal government over the potential of armed conflict with Mexico.

1916-18

•  The Tempe Cotton Exchange is entrusted by Federal officials at the Sacaton farm with producing enough Pima long staple cotton seed to sow the entire Salt River Valley cotton acreage in a few years. By 1919, the efforts of the Exchange and the farmers it worked with mean that most of the 87,000 acres of cotton sewn that season are in Pima cotton.

1917

•  An early morning fire on July 10 completely destroys the original Hayden Flour Mill. The heroic efforts of Tempe’s firefighters prevent the gust-driven fire from spreading to the Hayden House across the street and other buildings to the south. Built in 1874, the three-story adobe flour mill was Tempe’s most recognizable landmark and the namesake of its best-known thoroughfare.

1918

•  The new Hayden Flour Mill opens on July 11, a year and a day since fire destroyed its predecessor. Designed by the firm of Lescher & Kibbey, the new building is a poured-concrete, steel-reinforced building with an air of permanence that anchors the north end of Mill Avenue. The mill will remain in operation for another 80 years.

1918-19

•  The global influenza pandemic impacts Tempe from fall 1918 and well into 1919. In November, the 10^th Street School is converted into an emergency hospital to handle the local surge in influenza cases.

1919

•  The Tempe farming district boasts 11,000 acres sewn in cotton (likely all of it in Pima cotton). Four ginning plants support local cotton farmers.

1920-21

•  Tempe is hit by the “Cotton Crash.” The price of cotton plummets, leading to financial disaster for cotton farmers in the Salt River Valley. Tempe, home of the local cotton growers association, is hit particularly hard.

1920

• Tempe’s total population is recorded as 3,948 by the U.S. Census. Defined as the Tempe Precinct (meaning election precinct, of which there are four that make up Tempe overall), this figure includes incorporated Tempe which is comprised of 1,963 residents in two precincts.
  
  
• The population of the Kyrene Precinct is recorded as 1,550 by the U.S. Census. Most of the Kyrene Precinct is what is known generally today as south Tempe (incorporated Tempe south of the Superstition Freeway).
  
  
• Twohy Brothers Company set up a massive sand and gravel mining operation just west of the Arizona Eastern Railroad tracks in northwest Tempe. Twohy Brothers, an Oregon-based company with extensive railroad and shipbuilding experience, are contracted to build the 283-mile Maricopa road system. The company mines the bed of the Salt River west of the railroad bridge for the rock and sand needed to build the concrete roads.

1923

• The Farmer and Merchants Bank fails. The bank is a victim of the “Cotton Crash” of the early 1920s.
  
  
• The Tempe Irrigating Canal Company becomes part of the Salt River Project.
  
  
• The swimming pool at Tempe Beach Park opens.
  
  
• The Tempe Rotary Club is formed.

1925

•  Adolpho Romo brings a suit against the Trustees of the Tempe Elementary School in the Maricopa County Superior Court asking that his children be admitted to the Tenth Street School on the same terms and conditions as other children. At that time, the district required his four children, and all Hispanic children, to attend the Eighth Street School. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Jenckes ruled in his favor.

1927

• Mary A. Cotter opens the Cotter Maternity Hospital in her residence at 217 East 7^th Street. A trained nurse, Mrs. Cotter delivered countless local children, and her small hospital served Tempe’s maternity needs until the Clinic Hospital opened in 1944.

1929

• The Tempe Lions Club is formed.
  
  
• Tempe voters pass a measure that officially creates the “City of Tempe” in September.
  
  
• The stock market crashes, plunging the country into the Great Depression. The effects were not felt immediately in the Salt River Valley.

 1930

• Tempe’s total population is recorded as 4,464 by the U.S. Census.Defined as the Tempe Precinct (meaning election precinct, of which there are four that make up Tempe overall), this figure includes incorporated Tempe which is comprised of 2,495 residents in two precincts.
  
  
• The population of the Kyrene Precinct is recorded as 2,309 by the U.S. Census. Most of the Kyrene Precinct is what is known generally today as south Tempe (incorporated Tempe south of the Superstition Freeway).

1931

•  The Mill Avenue Bridge is completed and replaces the Ash Avenue bridge as the auto crossing.

1932

•  Dr. B. B. Moeur, a longtime Tempe physician, is elected Governor of Arizona.

1933

•  A federal amendment repeals national prohibition in March. In May, Tempe voters repeal the city prohibition against the sale of beer, which had been in place since 1911.

1934

•  The Arizona State Welfare Sanitarium opens north of the Salt River in Tempe with a 200-bed capacity to care for tuberculosis patients unable to afford treatment. Constructed with adobe bricks and styled in Islamic/Middle Eastern architecture, the facility is built by a Federal Emergency Relief Administration workforce for $185,000. 

• Click here to see images of the Arizona State Welfare Sanitorium on Tempe History Museum's eMuseum online collections database. 

1936

•  John R. Murdock, a professor at Arizona State Teachers College, is elected to the United States House of Representatives. 

1937

•  The Southside Progress weekly newspaper publishes its first edition in April. Edited by Frank Connolly, a young but already well-established journalist, the paper joins the venerated Tempe Daily News to become the second newspaper based in Tempe. Connolly will go on to buy the Tempe Daily News in 1944, and in 1948, the Southside Progress will leave Tempe to become the Scottsdale Progress. 

1940

• The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 2,906 by the U.S. Census. The population of the irrigation and farming district surrounding incorporated Tempe is 4,096. This includes Maricopa County Enumeration District No. 79, 87, 88, 95, and 96.  

• The College Theatre opens on Mill Avenue in November. Dwight “Red” Harkins partners with Arizona theater mogul, Harry Nace, to build a 500-seat, state-of-the-art movie house with hands-free, automatic drinking fountains, florescent carpets to aid walking in the dark, and the newest and best in sound and projection technology.

1941

• The United States government purchases the property at the southwest corner of Mill Avenue and 5^th Street with plans to erect Tempe’s first purpose-built U.S. Post Office at a cost of $185,000. The landmark Curry Building, home to the Midway Ballroom, is razed to make way for the new post office. Soon, the wartime emergency leads to cancellation of the project and the site remains vacant for two decades. 

• The December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor pulls the United States into World War II. Hundreds of Tempe residents will serve in the armed forces and other organizations through the duration of the conflict in late 1945.

1944

• Tempe’s first official hospital, Tempe Clinic Hospital, opens. 

1945

•  Arizona State Teachers College is renamed Arizona State College at Tempe.

1946

• The Tempe Beach Pool "No Mexicans Allowed" segregation policy is ended. Hispanic Tempe veterans lead the effort to desegregate the pool.

1949

• Tempe’s first artificial recreational lake – Lakeside Amusement Park – opens for fishing, boating, and hosts speedboat races. The lake was located on the north side of modern Tempe Town Lake, between the north end of the Mill Avenue bridges and the Town Lake Marina. The Lakeside Park Lake may have been as large as 26 acres at its maximum in 1950 and was stocked with fish, including perch, bass, and bluegill. The owners planned to build the lake to a mile and a half in length with a width of 100 yards, as well as to establish an amusement park. Water loss due to seepage into the bed of the Salt River was a constant problem, and likely led to the closure of Tempe’s first artificial lake by 1951.

1950

• Tempean Howard Pyle is elected Governor of Arizona.

• Annexation has increased Incorporated Tempe to 2.6 square miles.(Incorporated Tempe remained at 1.8 square miles from 1894-1940)

• The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 7,684 by the U.S. Census.

1951

• Hayden Flour Mill grain elevator is built in March. The project requires an 11 day/24 hour per day concrete pour to complete. Built by the Denver-based Mayer-Osborn Company, the 120-foot-tall structure costs $225,000. Best known as the Hayden Mills’ “silos,” this structure immediately becomes the most conspicuous landmark in downtown Tempe.

1952

• African American students are integrated into Tempe schools. As the result of an agreement with the struggling Roosevelt District of south Phoenix, Tempe’s district boundaries expand westward to 40^th Street, and black students from the Okemah neighborhood are bused to Tempe schools.

• Salt River Project completes the Kyrene No. 1, an electric generating plant just east of Kyrene Road between Elliot and Guadalupe Roads. Built at a cost of $4.6 million, the facility generates 30,000 kilowatts of electricity. Two years later, a $7.7 million expansion is added, known as Kyrene Steam Generating Plant No. 2, which produces another 60,000 kilowatts.
  • The facility powers an expanding industrial corridor on Kyrene Road south of Baseline Road which will host a variety heavy manufacturing plants by the end of the decade, including several steel mills.
  • View a photo of the Kyrene Generating Station from the Tempe History Museum’s eMuseum online collections database.

1956

• The Bayless Market shopping center opens in April, followed in November by the opening of the Tempe Center shopping plaza. The location of the Bayless Market on Apache Boulevard in expanding, suburban Tempe, and the Tempe Center just south of 8^th Street (now University Drive) and Mill Avenue signals the slow decline of old downtown Tempe as the commercial hub of the city.

1958

• Arizona voters change the name of Arizona State College at Tempe to Arizona State University.

• ASU Sun Devil Stadium is built. It is expanded several times over the years.

1959

• Western Rolling Mills steel mill opens at Kyrene and Carver Roads (south of Elliot Road), just west of the railroad tracks. The mill processes scrap metal and turns it into steel for use in construction projects, as well as ore crushing balls for processing ore extracted at mines. In the early 1960s, the plant will be purchased by Allison Steel. In later years, new ownership will take over and the mill will be known as Marathon Steel.
  • Check out photos of the Western Rolling Mills steel mill from Tempe History Museum’s eMuseum online collections database.

1960

• Annexation has increased Incorporated Tempe to 17.5 square miles.

• The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 24,897 by the U.S. Census.

1961

• Tempe’s first purpose-built U.S. Post Office opens at the southwest corner of Mill Avenue and 5^th Street. Tempe’s post office had been housed in a variety of stores and buildings since it was established as the Hayden’s Ferry post office in 1872.Longtime Tempe Postmaster Floyd Miller is in charge of the new facility.

1962

•  Broadway Plaza is completed at Broadway Road and Mill Avenue.

1963

• The Legend City theme park opens in north Tempe on June 29^th, a Saturday. The 58-acre, western-themed amusement park was based on the vision of Louis Crandall, a Valley resident with a background in commercial art and marketing. Among the long-time attractions to the park are the Arizona comedy team, Wallace & Ladmo.
  • Visit the Legend City past exhibit page on the Tempe History Museum website.

1964

• Tempe becomes a charter government city and elects its mayor directly for the first time.

• Laird and Dines Drug Store closes after 68 years of operation at the corner of Mill Avenue and Fifth Street.

• ASU has 16,818 students, with a campus on 300 acres of land.

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers a speech titled “Religious Witness for Human Dignity” at Goodwin Stadium on June 3.
  • Explore the archive of Dr. King’s presentation at Arizona State University, including an audio recording of his speech.

• Gammage Auditorium opens in September. A masterpiece designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, ASU’s premier auditorium is the only public building in Arizona credited to the world-famous architect. The steel used in the construction of Gammage Auditorium is the product of the Allison Steel Manufacturing Company’s Rolling Mills Division plant on Kyrene Road south of Elliot Road.
  • Checkout a variety of great photos of Gammage Auditorium in Tempe History Museum’s eMuseum online collections database.

1965

• Tempe's population is now 45, 919 -- an increase of 84.4% in five years.

1967

• Tempe adopts its first General Plan to direct the development of the city.

1968

• Ground is broken for a new Post Office facility at Southern and College avenues.

• Carl Trumbull Hayden retires from the United States Senate after 56 years of service in Congress. Hayden still holds the record for the longest term of service in the Congress.

• ASU has 23,341 students.

• Downtown business owners found the Mill Avenue Merchants Association, or M.A.M.A. The organization represents small business owners downtown who cater heavily to the youth of the counter-culture movement and students. M.A.M.A. becomes a champion of historic preservation. Although considered controversial at first, the organization survives and flourishes. Its cornerstone event is the annual arts and crafts festival.

• The Interstate-10 freeway is built through Tempe.

• Diablo Stadium is built. It is the spring training home of the Seattle Pilots, an American League expansion team of Major League Baseball.

1969

• The first Mill Avenue arts and crafts fair is held. Hosted by M.A.M.A., the fair had its origins in a small sidewalk event with a hand full of vendors at the southeast corner of Mill Avenue and 4^th Street in 1968. Over 50 years later, the fair has become a three-day festival that draws a quarter million visitors annually.
  • Read about the history of M.A.M.A. and the Arts & Crafts Fair on the Tempe History Society's website.
  • Click here to explore photos of M.A.M.A. and the Arts & Crafts Fair on Tempe History Museum’s eMuseum online collections database. 

• Big Surf Waterpark opened. Construction began right at the beginning of the year, and it officially opened on October 24, 1969.

• Tempe’s City Hall and the Public Library move into temporary quarters at Danelle Plaza at the southwest corner of Mill and Southern Avenues. City Hall will move into the new “upside-down pyramid” building on 5^th Street after its completion in 1970. The Tempe Public Library will stay at Danelle Plaza until 1971, awaiting the construction of the new library at the southwest corner of Rural Road and Southern Avenue.
  • Photo of City Hall sign at Danelle Plaza in 1969, from Tempe History Museum’s eMuseum online collections database.

1970

• A new City Hall complex is completed.

• Construction of "The Lakes" housing development begins just outside of Tempe's city limits.

• Annexation has increased Incorporated Tempe to 25.3 square miles.

• The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 63,550 by the U.S. Census.

1971

• The first building constructed specifically for the Tempe Public Library is completed at Southern Avenue and Rural Road. Today this building houses the Tempe History Museum.

• Tempe celebrates the Centennial of its founding in 1871.

1972

•  The City of Tempe purchases land for Kiwanis Park.

1974

•  The City of Chandler annexes land along Ray Road, blocking Tempe's last avenue of expansion. Tempe becomes landlocked.

1980

• Annexation has increased Incorporated Tempe to 36 square miles.

• The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 106,743 by the U.S. Census.

• Major floods close every bridge in the valley except the Mill Avenue Bridge and the Central Avenue Bridge in Phoenix.

1985

• The first Tempe New Years Eve Block Party is held in downtown Tempe. It began as a small gathering for out-of-town football fans attending the Fiesta Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium, and grew to 150,00 attendees over the next 30 years. Featured national entertainment included Bryan Adams, the Charlie Daniels Band, Billy Idol, LeAnn Rimes, Hootie and the Blowfish, the Doobie Brothers, and Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers.

1988

• The Phoenix Cardinals begin playing at Sun Devil Stadium and open a training facility in Tempe.

• The Kiwanis Recreation Center and Wave Pool open to the public.

1989

• The new Tempe Public Library building opens.

• The Tempe City Council approves the Rio Salado Project.

1989-94

•  The Maricopa County Flood Control district channelizes the Salt River.

1990

• Incorporated Tempe is 39.3 square miles in size.

• The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 141,134 by the U.S. Census.

• Tempe voters approve an ordinance to provide funding for public art.

1991

• The Tempe Historical Museum reopens in the former Tempe Public Library.

• The old Ash Avenue bridge is demolished. Originally known as the Tempe State Bridge, the structure is deemed too costly to restore. A small remnant of the south end of the bridge is preserved, and this portion is known as the Ash Avenue Bridge Abutment.
  • For more information about the historic Ash Avenue Bridge, visit the City of Tempe's Historic Preservation webpage.

1993

•  The Tempe/Arizona Public Service Joint Fire Training Center is dedicated.

1994

•  The Arizona Department of Transportation completes the Loop 202 freeway through north Tempe.

1995

•  Incorporated Tempe is 39.8 square miles in size.

1996

• Super Bowl XXX is played in Sun Devil Stadium. The NFC Champion Dallas Cowboys defeat the AFC Champion Pittsburgh Steelers by a score of 27-17.
  • Watch this short video re-cap of Super Bowl XXX on YouTube

1997

• The Hayden Flour Mill closes after 123 years of operation. The mill's last operator was Bay State Milling, which purchased the mill in 1981. Limited operations continued until March 1998.

• The Tempe Fire Department becomes the first fire department in the United States to be accredited by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International.

1998

• Construction of the Rio Salado Project begins.

1999

• The Tempe Town Lake is completed. Tempe Beach Park is rededicated.

• The Tempe Fire Department opens a new Fire Station and Administration Offices on East Apache Boulevard. The new facility is named Fire Station #1.

• The Human Relations Commission establishes the Diversity Award to recognize individuals, community groups and businesses who have demonstrated a commitment to diversity in Tempe.

• The first Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade is held on Tempe Town Lake, in early December. This annual event features boats of various sizes and shapes, all with holiday lights, and is followed by fireworks.

2000

•  The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 158,625 by the U.S. Census.

2002

• The old Hayden Flour Mill burns for the second time in its history. The Fire Department saves the 1918 portion and the 1951 grain silos.

2004

• Pat Tillman, a well-known ASU and Arizona Cardinal athlete, gave up his career to join the U.S. Army Rangers in Afghanistan. Sadly, he lost his life in a friendly-fire accident while there. His family and friends started the Pat Tillman Foundation to provide scholarships to help military service members, veterans and spouses further their education to reach their potential as leaders. Pat’s Run ending at the 42-yard line in Sun Devil Stadium is the annual fund-raiser for the Foundation.

• International retail giant IKEA opens a store in Tempe.

2005

• The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 165,796 by the U.S. Census (Interim).

• The Tempe Healing Field appears for the first time. 3,000 U.S. flags are placed at Tempe Beach Park each year in September for three days to commemorate the lives lost on September 11, 2001. During the event, all 3,000 victims’ names are read as part of the event.

2006

• Incorporated Tempe is 40.1 square miles in size.

• The Arizona Cardinals (formerly the Phoenix Cardinals) move from Sun Devil Stadium to the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.

2007

• The Tempe Center for the Arts opens by Town Lake.

2008

• Corey Woods is the first African American elected to serve on Tempe City Council.

• The light rail transit system begins operation in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa.

2009

• The East Valley Tribune, the latest version of the Tempe Daily News, ceases circulation in Tempe, marking the end of 122 years of continuous newspaper coverage.

• President Barack Obama speaks at the Arizona State University commencement.

2010

• The population of incorporated Tempe is recorded as 161,719 by the U.S. Census.

• The inflated rubber dam at the west end of Tempe Town Like bursts in July. Approximately one billion gallons of water is released from the 220-acre lake.

2011

• Tempe Town Lake Pedestrian Bridge opens at the base of the Tempe Center for the Arts.

2014

• In November, Tempe’s legendary Monti’s La Casa Vieja restaurant closes after nearly 60 years of serving filet mignon and Roman bread to generations of Tempeans and out-of-town visitors.

• The Human Rights Commission awarded Tempe a perfect score of 100 in the Municipal Equity Index. The City has continued to receive perfect scores in subsequent years.

2015

• ASU is named Number 1 among all U.S. Universities in Innovation, according to U.S. News & World Report. ASU will go on to receive this designation multiple years in a row, ahead of Stanford and MIT.

2018

• IDEA Tempe, a million square foot technology development center, opens adjacent to the Tempe Center for the Arts.

2020

• Incorporated Tempe is 40.22 square miles in size.

• Global pandemic reaches Arizona in March. Like the rest of the world, Covid 19 will dramatically affect Tempe through 2022.

• Corey Woods is the first African American elected to serve as Mayor of Tempe.

• Doreen Garlid is the first Native American elected to serve on Tempe City Council.

• In July, a train derails on the Union Pacific Bridge across Tempe Town Lake. The dramatic, fiery crash leads to the destruction of three spans of the historic bridge, originally opened in 1913.

• Tempe’s population is 180,587 in the 2020 U.S. Census.

2021

• Tempe celebrates its Sesquicentennial, marking its founding 150 years before.

• Mirabella at ASU, a large continuum of care retirement community for older adults, opens on the ASU campus.

2022

• Berdetta Hodge is the first African American woman elected to serve on Tempe City Council.

• Arlene Chin is the first Asian American elected to serve on Tempe City Council.

• Tempe Streetcar begins operating in downtown Tempe.

2023

• Tempe voters reject a proposed hockey arena for the Arizona Coyotes.

• The City of Tempe broadens its focus and is committed to solutions and services so that homelessness for individuals and families is a rare, brief, one-time experience. Services include street outreach, case management, crisis response, mental health services, emergency and transitional shelter and housing.

• Major residential and commercial development continues along Tempe Town Lake, including the Hayden Flour Mill and a mixed-use South Pier.

• A noise dispute between Shady Park and Mirabella at ASU is settled in court.

• The colors of the Progress Pride Flag are unveiled in the Rainbow Crosswalk, at Mill Avenue and 7^th Street, to signify the City’s commitment to inclusivity. The Downtown Tempe Authority hosts its first PRIDE Party in June.