Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 136

le View of Sedona lH Sunday, April 30,1967 (Section K) Page 1 Ten-mile-Ionjj tour will load thvoiiyh field, over the red rocks MARY Story and Photos By MARY LEONHARD In Sedona, it's spring again. And they're readying one of the annual rites house and garden tour. It'll be next Sunday afternoon from 1 to 4 p.m. Tickets will cost $2.50 apiece, and proceeds will benefit the Verde Valley Association for Mental Health. This year there'll be fewer homes and more louring.

There's over 10 miles between the first and last of the three open-houses, which will allow autoists leisurely views of Sedona's spectacular scenery. "A Wide-Angle View of the Red Rocks, From the Hills, the Creek, the Meadows," the committee has dubbed its tour. Caravans will gather at Sedona Elementary School on Brewer Road. The town's Kanyon Kids and 4-H Club will provide supervised play for children at the school, during tour hours. First tour house is Mr.

and Mrs. Earl Winther's residence in Cibola Ilills. This subdivision at the north end of Sedona has retained natural vegetation junipers and wildflowers abound there. Cibola Hills' sleep lots are tempting owners into terracing. On his terraces, Mr.

Winthcr has planted tulips and and 45 fruit trees. The couple, who came to Sedona three years ago from Los Angeles, designed their own home. Its construction is frame and concrete block, with redwood siding and slump block trim. Ingenious conveniences are built into every room including a baking center and specially designed storage cabinets. The house has His and Hers hobby rooms.

Next tour house is across Oak Creek overhangs the creek side, in fact. This is the retirement home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter who haven't retired yet. "We're working toward retirement," says Mrs.

Nelson. Her husband established the Sedona Ranch Market and Nelson's Shopping Center, is currently involved in real estate sales. The Nelsons' board and batten home has a wainscoting of used brick from Jerome. Furnished in Early American style, it con- tains a rare collection of Indian artifacts, and art works by a number of Sedona artists. Outside, on the wide and well-furnished deck, on the upper- level lawns and down near the creek, Mrs.

Nelson has been gardening, with colorful and interesting results. Her outdoor living room is a small, sandy island in the creek, by which flows the oldest irrigation ditch in Sedona. The ditch now waters lawns of Copper Cliffs subdivision residences, was once used for farming in the bottomlands. The tour will wind up at Verde Valley School at the white stucco residence of the school's founders, Mr. and Mrs.

Hamilton Warren. This is a palatial house, roofed in Spanish tile, and furnished with antiques originating in Spain, Italy, Mexico, England, India, China and the United States. Pine-beamed ceilings, hardwood floors, dark furniture and white walls are hallmarks of the home. Its gardens, too, are luxurious. The tour will wind by the classroom, residence and auditorium buildings of the architecturally interesting campus.

Reservations for the day can be made in advance at Saddle Rock Arts and Crafts shop in Sedona. l-Iuniillon Warren Residence; at Verde Valley Sclhool Earl Wintlier homo in Cibnla Hills Subdivision Mr. and Mrs. Walter Nelson collectors Deer Valley Building Up By HENRY FULLER Recently we devoted a column to the potential for residential subdivisions in the southwest Phoenix area. Now we have developers in the northwest (Deer Valley) section breathing fire down our neck for ignoring them.

And their indignation is justified. We toured that area last week with Ralph Staggs and had our eyes opened to the amount of homebuilding under way Fuller there at present. In addition to Stages, three other long-established home builders now are operating there, having purchased land from him for their ventures. It is a dramatic revival of construction in a district that has been more or less dormant for the last 18 months. With the loosening of the money market, this well may be the growingest portion of Greater Phoenix by the end of 1967.

Deer Valley, as you know, is due north on both sides of Black Canyon Highway. Some 25 years ago it was converted from desert to the richest agricultural land in the state, through deep-well irrigation. Then came our population increase. The search for subdivision land, sparked by the completion of the freeway and the arrival of General Electric and Sperry-Phoenix on the scene, pushed agriculture away from many fertile acres. That push is continuing.

Both of these plants since have doubled in size, "with the number of their employes running, into the thousands. And don't overlook a of thousand more men and women employed at the Arizona ub 1 i Service operations and maintenance plant in Deer Valley, or the growing employment possibilities of Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics. Staggs acquired 1,000 acres in the heart of Deer Valley a year or two previous to starting his home-building operations in 1960-61. Now he has erected nearly 2,000 units there and just has opened three new model homes. He also developed a shopping center at Cactus! Road and Black Canyon, covering 40 acres.

There is an additional 30 acres set aside for future expansion of the facility. Of course, he wasn't alone in this conversion of lettuce, onion and cotton fields and cifrus orchards into homcsites. Other builders, including the late Forrest Cox, created and sold out large subdivisions. Hallcraft Homes took over the Cox estate holdings north of Thunderbird Road, west -of Black Canyon, and is holding the land in reserve. The active builders today, in addition to Staggs, are Frank Knoell, who purchased 120 acres; Porter Womack, taking 40 acres, and L.

Farmer with 30 acres. They haven't; just bought. They are building and selling. Knoell has five model houses completed and ore display. His construction crews are starting on units sold.

Womack will have his five model homes ready for inspection in a matter of days. Farmer's workers were busy with installation of sewer lines and other utilities when we visited. All of these expansions are along 35th Avenue, just south of the new Moon Valley High School. (They still are fighting over that name. Moon Valley is five miles away.) Prices of these new homes vary with size and builder, but they mostly center around a $17,500 peg.

None of the firms is building speculative homes at this time. Staggs named his initial subdivision Westown and the name has stuck for the area. Within IVa miles of the shopping center 4,000 dwellings have been built and sold. According to Staggs, within a ZV-t, mile radius, 30,000 men and women are employed, basically in civil jobs, rather than on military contracts. We attributed this remarkable growth of homes to the presence of the four big plants we named earlier Sperry, Public Service and Kaiser.

Staggs gives the credit to the freeway. He says surveys have convinced him as many persons living in Deer Valley are employed with "downtown" jobs as are working in the neighboring factories. Either way the tremendous residential growth has been responsible for the erection of several churches, two public and one parochial elementary schools, and the high school. Just west of the high school campus is land for a city park. So far lownhouses have yet to make their appearance in this complex of free-standing homes.

Staggs has 35 acres set aside for these or apartments. Presumably Hallcraft will bring townhouses to its land some day. Looks like a i year for northwest Phoenix. Warrens' iront porch overhangs Oak Layout By John Wallace Sun Living Ask Your Decorator 3 Valley Gardening 7 to 9 Jumble Word Came 8 New Products 10 Horseman's Notebook 10 House of the Week 13.