Cheery Lynn Historic District in Phoenix, AZ: 1928 cottages by two builders

At a glance

Cheery Lynn Historic District houses by builder

Cheery Lynn was built by two developers in two bursts, and you can still tell their houses apart from the street. The Fosburgs' first homes, designed by Marion E. Carr, were brick and stucco English cottages. H. M. Strough, who took over in 1932, built stucco Monterey houses one at a time. The postwar lots filled with Ranch houses. Knowing which builder's house you are looking at tells you the wall material, the roof shape and what the inspection should focus on.

The National Register nomination sorts the 55 contributing buildings from before 1940 like this:

Marion E. Carr's English Revival cottages in Cheery Lynn

The first fourteen homes, advertised as "ultra modern English type homes", were finished by January 1929 and reportedly cost $5,000 to $10,000 to build. English Revival houses here have steep roofs; about a third show exposed red or variegated brick and the rest are stucco.

H. M. Strough's Monterey Revival houses in Cheery Lynn

Strough's houses are mostly builder versions of the Monterey style: stucco walls, molded cornices, arches and wingwalls. Most are block and a few are adobe. They are almost always stucco, often flat-roofed, with red clay tile on the gabled parts. On one of these, ask the inspector to start with the flat roof and its drainage, and to confirm whether the walls are block or adobe; the historic home inspection guide explains the adobe checks.

Cheery Lynn bungalows and postwar Ranch houses

The bungalows are all brick, with low- to medium-pitch gabled roofs and wood casement or double-hung windows. Houses built after the war, up to 1950, are Ranch style.

On a walk down Cheery Lynn Road, a few clues sort the houses. A steep roof over exposed red or variegated brick, or over stucco, marks an English Revival cottage from the first burst of building. A stucco house, often flat-roofed, with red clay tile only on its gabled parts and arches or wingwalls at the front, is most likely one of Strough's Monterey houses from the mid-1930s. A brick house with a low gabled roof and wood windows is a bungalow, and a Ranch house is most likely from after the war.

Streets and lots in the Cheery Lynn Historic District

The district is one subdivision, recorded in 1928 with 80 lots, including eight facing 16th Street. Lots are 60 feet wide, except on corners, and 75 to 135 feet deep. Streets are 60 feet wide, with shallow front lawns and even setbacks. Every house is a small single-family home, all single-story except one two-story house on Cheery Lynn Road, and many have a detached garage styled like the house.

Flower Street, the north edge of Cheery Lynn

Only the south side of Flower Street is in the district; the north side is outside it, so check which side a listing is on.

Cheery Lynn Road through the middle of the district

Both sides of Cheery Lynn Road are inside the district, and it holds the one original two-story house. The district's west edge follows the angle of Randolph Road.

Earll Drive, the south edge of Cheery Lynn

Only the north side of Earll Drive is in the district. The south side is outside it.

16th Street lots left out of the Cheery Lynn district

The lots facing 16th Street that had no historic buildings were left out of the district, so a 16th Street address with the Cheery Lynn plat name may not be under HP zoning. Check the zoning for the HP suffix before you rely on it either way.

How the Cheery Lynn Historic District was built

Mr. and Mrs. William Fosburg developed the subdivision on speculation, with local designer-builder Marion E. Carr as designer and superintendent of construction. Their advertising stressed the location: "only three miles from the City", 30 minutes by bus from downtown, on 16th Street (the road to the Arizona Biltmore, which opened in 1929) and within walking distance of the Phoenix Country Club.

In 1932 the Fosburgs traded the subdivision to H. M. Strough, a former Los Angeles-area builder, who built 23 houses in Cheery Lynn before he died in 1938. He built one house at a time under an arrangement with the O'Malley Building Materials Company, and most accounts were settled in 1936 and 1937 through buyers' FHA-guaranteed loans. By the end of 1935, 46 homes were complete. Only about six more went up before World War II, and the rest of the lots filled after the war.

By 1994 no lot was vacant: every original lot held a house or had been merged into a neighbor's yard. Of the 68 properties in the National Register district, 58 were contributing and 10 were not, about 85 percent. Three of the 10 had been heavily altered, and the rest were built after 1950.

Changing a house in the Cheery Lynn Historic District

The City put Cheery Lynn on its register with HP overlay zoning in February 1994, with a period of significance of 1928 to 1945. The National Register listing followed on December 21, 1994, on 39.25 acres. Contributing or not, every house here falls under the HP overlay for exterior work.

Not everything needs a form. Paint, routine maintenance and in-kind repairs need no City approval, and interiors are not reviewed, so a kitchen remodel inside a Cheery Lynn cottage sits outside the historic review.

Small projects on a Cheery Lynn house

Walls, fences, rear patio covers and small rear additions usually get a Certificate of No Effect, with no hearing.

Bigger or street-visible changes in Cheery Lynn

Work that is larger or visible from the street needs a Certificate of Appropriateness and a public hearing. The City charges no review fee for listed properties. The HP zoning guide sets out the steps, and if the house turns out to be adobe, read how insurers treat historic Arizona homes before you shop for a policy.

Cheery Lynn or Earll Place: two small Phoenix districts on 16th Street

Earll Place Historic District sits just east of Cheery Lynn, across 16th Street. The City listed it in April 2003, with a period of significance of 1927 to 1942, covering Earll Drive and the north side of Pinchot Avenue between 16th and 18th streets. Its period starts a year before Cheery Lynn's and ends three years earlier, so the houses come from the same building years; tour both on the same day.

Further east along the same streets, Phoenix Homesteads has 1930s adobe houses on Pinchot Avenue, Flower Street and Earll Drive between 26th and 28th streets, built by a federal program, some on much larger lots. For Monterey and Tudor Revival houses on estate-sized lots, look at Alvarado; the full list of Phoenix historic districts has the rest.

Cheery Lynn home values

Public medians don't fit a 1929 cottage. The Census tract that holds Cheery Lynn (tract 1106) puts its median owner-occupied value at $429,400, but its median home was built in 1969, four decades after these houses. ZIP code 85014 sits at $476,100. Price a Cheery Lynn house from recent sales inside the 80-lot subdivision.

Not the Cheery Lynn Road landmark

The Rancho Joaquina House, far to the east on the same road, is a separate, individually listed property, not part of this district.

The City lists the Greater Cheery Lynn Neighborhood Association for the district. Joe Janus can pull recent Cheery Lynn sales for you: ask Joe for district sales.

Cheery Lynn Historic District FAQs