Design
Phoenix, Then and Now (1885 to 2011)
126 years later, Phoenix bares little resemblance to the sleepy agricultural town of the 1880s
Incorporated in 1881, Phoenix, Arizona, has undergone a remarkable change to its layout and economic importance since. Thanks to rapid annexation in the late 19th century, the city decided to change their north-south street names, switching to numbers instead of Native American tribe names for the sake of navigation.
In this 1885 map, courtesy of the Library of Congress, you can see just how young and undeveloped Phoenix was at the time. Still, the foundations of a healthy town were already in place. A rational street grid, public space, and a waterway soon to be replaced by railroad put the city on a path to what it is today.