Originally published

Honorable Mention, Feature Writing Category

75th Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition

Originally published in up! Magazine, February 2006

Photo courtesy of Glendale Visitor Center

Historic Catlin Court Shopping District Good 'Hoods

These Streets are Your Streets:

Glendale’s Historic Downtown

At first glance, Glendale, Arizona just doesn’t make any sense. The suburb on the west side of Phoenix is home to nearly a quarter-million people, two professional sports teams, and the largest U.S. Air Force training base in the world. And in 2008, it will host the Super Bowl in a new $450 million stadium.

Yet, its historic downtown clings to yesteryears, with tree-lined brick sidewalks, 1920s-era bungalow homes, and one-of-a-kind shops and eateries that seem almost smug—if they weren’t so darn charming—about the fact that there’s not a chain store in sight.

Throughout the 1990s, Glendale was one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. Its agricultural lands began to fill in with modern subdivisions, shopping centers and schools. But long-time residents were determined to preserve the city’s small-town feel and developed a downtown zoning plan to create specialty retail shops in a residential area known as Catlin Court. The area has since been entered into the National Register of Historic Places.

In the heart of downtown, just one block north of Glendale City Hall and Murphy Park, the Historic Catlin Court District was once one of the city’s early, fashionable neighborhoods. Today, it includes about 80 buildings—a charming assortment of tiny houses, some that have been beautifully restored into shops and homes, others that have fallen into disrepair. Residents here are a mixed bag of wealthy Baby Boomers, low-income families and retirees. Parked on the street is a late-model Ford with dented side panels, leaking oil, the hood spattered with bird droppings. Beside it, a shiny black 2006 Lexus sedan. Neither seems out of place.

On the other side of City Hall, Glendale Avenue bustles with cars and people. Workers who commute to the various city offices downtown – the civic center, court house and city council – leave their cars in the garage and relish the novel opportunity to walk to their favorite lunch spots, like Bitzee Mama’s Mexican food restaurant on 58th Avenue for green chili and diced beef chimichangas. Proprietors of the local shops often take to sidewalk benches with sack lunches or duck into their homes across the street and around the block to microwave a cup of soup.

An elderly Hispanic woman in a sweater vest, sneakers and big glasses on a quest for latch-hook rug supplies ducks into Simple Pleasures, one of the nearly 100 antique, craft and specialty shops downtown. The quaint setting of Catlin Court seemed to attract antique enthusiasts and within a year of rezoning nearly a dozen shops had popped up. It created a niche market that grew exponentially year after year, spilling out of Catlin and filling in more than 16 square blocks downtown. Still, the area remains an eclectic blend of new and old, from its businesses to its inhabitants. A man in suit jacket stops in the Arizona Cardinals football team shop to buy a jersey for his son. On the corner, a handful of teenagers with droopy pants and pierced eyebrows laugh and smoke outside the metaphysical bookstore. The elderly woman winks as she passes them, her rug-making treasures in hand. Everyone belongs here.

In a desert metropolis overrun with super-sized shopping centers and digital marquees, a walk down Glendale Avenue, between 53rd and 59th Avenues is like a scene out of American Graffiti with its old-fashioned storefronts and hand-painted signs. A bell jingles above the door when you enter most shops. Local establishments are predominately family-owned. Take Pete’s Fish & Chips on 55th, a fixture since 1947, and the Cerreta Candy Company on 53rd, where the Cerreta family has been making chocolate and candies by hand for 70 years.

This neighborhood shuns the mainstays of most booming U.S. cities. In 2001, citizens voted to uphold city zoning rules that prevented Wal-Mart from building a 24-hour “supercenter” in the area.

Looking for a Starbucks? You won’t find one nearby. Downtown zoning also favors locally-owned businesses. For their morning caffeine fix, locals drop by Aunt Pittypat’s on Palmaire Avenue. No lattes here. Just fresh hot black coffee in a sturdy ceramic mug, cream and sugar on the side. This 1940s house-turned-restaurant serves old-fashioned comfort foods on mismatched china and flatware. Try the BLT on homemade bread, just like grandma used to make.

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