page_title: Glendale, Arizona
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Glendale, Arizona / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of William John Murphy (1839-1923), founder of Glendale, Arizona, taken in 1905 and published in the defunct Arizona Republican on December 3, 1905. The picture was taken 18 years before the 1923 copyright laws applied.
context_page_description: Glendale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located about nine miles northwest from Downtown Phoenix. According to the 2019 U.S. Census estimates, the population of the city is 252,381.
context_section_description: In the late 1800s what is now known as Glendale, Arizona, was all desert. William John Murphy, a native of New Hartford, New York, who resided in the town of Flagstaff in what was then known as the territory of Arizona, was in charge of building a 40-mile-long (64 km) Arizona Canal from Granite Reef to New River for the Arizona Canal Company. In 1885, he completed the canal, which would bring water to the desert land. Murphy was deep in debt, since he had agreed to be paid in Arizona Canal Company stock and bonds and land instead of cash.
  In 1887, Murphy formed the Arizona Improvement Company. His objective was to sell the land and water rights south of the canal. Murphy had to raise capital from out of state sources in order to meet payroll and construction expenses. Murphy decided to refer to this land as "Glendale". In order to develop and interest potential investors and settlers in this new town, Murphy decided to provide a better way of access from Phoenix to Glendale and ending in the town of Peoria by building an 18-mile-long (29 km) diagonal road which he named Grand Avenue.
  In 1891, Burgess Hadsell worked with Murphy to bring 70 Brethren and River Brethren families to Glendale to form a temperance colony. Soon settlers, attracted by the town's ban on alcoholic beverages, continued to arrive. In 1895, Murphy platted the original town site and amended the plat to include a town park and some business lots.  It was bounded by Lamar Road on the south, 55th Avenue on the east, Myrtle Avenue on the north, and 59th Avenue on the west. The construction of a railroad from Prescott to Phoenix was made possible with an exchange of the right-of-way made by Murphy along Grand Avenue.  The railroad allowed Glendale settlers to transport goods to the north and easily receive building materials.
  The construction and commercial applications of the Beet Sugar Factory in 1906, also contributed to the growth of Glendale. Though the operations of the factory only lasted until 1913, it played an important role in the increase of immigrant and migrant settlers in the city.
caption: William John Murphy – Founder of Glendale
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