Garfield Historic District, Phoenix: pyramid cottages and bungalows

At a glance

The Garfield Historic District: an older Phoenix house for less, and the catch

Garfield sits east of downtown, from Seventh Street to 16th Street between Van Buren and Roosevelt streets. Its houses are small (a median 1,207 square feet), mostly one story, and older than Coronado's: the median was built in 1926 and the middle half between 1916 and 1936.

Garfield fits if

• Price comes first. The middle half of Assessor values run from $300,300 to $368,900.
• You want an early house. About 10% of Garfield's houses were built between 1893 and 1914.
• You're ready to restore. With nearly half the historic windows gone and most rear houses altered, there is work to do, and the city's matching grant can share the cost (see the HP section below).

Look beyond the Garfield Historic District if

• You need more space. Roosevelt's median home has 2,084 square feet.
• You want an all-house street. Only 565 of Garfield's 872 parcels are single-family homes.
• You want a Revival house. F.Q. Story and Willo are the Tudor and Spanish districts.

Garfield Historic District houses, era by era

The National Register form divides Garfield's houses into four building phases. The phase tells you the likely style before you see the house.

Garfield's Craftsman bungalows

More than half of Garfield's houses date from 1915 to 1925, mostly Craftsman. If you picture a Garfield house, this is it: one story, set 30 to 40 feet back from the curb on a lot about 50 feet wide and 150 feet deep.

Garfield's Classical Revival houses

The oldest phase, 1893 to 1914, is mostly Classical Revival. At about one house in ten, they are the hardest to find.

Southwest Style and Ranch houses in Garfield

The later phases add Southwest Style houses from 1926 to 1935 and Early Ranch and Ranch houses from 1938 to 1955. For more postwar houses across the city, see the Phoenix mid-century modern guide.

Pyramid cottages in the Garfield Historic District

The city's Garfield brochure says the district has the largest concentration of pyramid cottages in Phoenix, and lists the predominant styles as Vernacular, Pyramid Cottage, Bungalow, Period Revival and Ranch. The name comes from the pyramidal roof.

Garfield's Grand Pyramid House on Pierce Street

The best-known example is the ca. 1900 Grand Pyramid House on East Pierce Street, listed on the National Register in 2002. Another, a ca. 1905 brick house with a pyramidal roof, stands on North Ninth Street.

Garfield walls and windows

Stucco covers 53% of Garfield's buildings, brick 27%, wood 10% and block 6%. About 55% of houses keep their historic windows, so nearly half have lost them. If you're paying for an original house, check the windows first. Window work inside a larger permitted project goes through HP review, and the city offers matching grants for energy repairs to historic windows, such as weatherstripping and new glass in the old sashes.

Houses, duplexes and rear houses in Garfield

The National Register form counts 640 single-family houses, 57 duplexes, four small residential courts and 48 apartment buildings or complexes, plus eight commercial buildings, four churches and Verde Park. Single-family homes are 565 of the district's 872 parcels, so check what stands next door.

Rear houses on Garfield lots

About 11% of houses have a small rear house, and most of those are non-historic or altered. About a quarter have a small rear garage near the alley. A rear house can mean rental income or extra space, but confirm its permits and zoning on that parcel before you count on either.

Garfield streets and alleys

Streets are about 30 feet wide and alleys about 15. Streets on the city's map include Roosevelt, Garfield, McKinley, Pierce, Fillmore, Taylor, Polk, Monroe, Van Buren and Diamond streets. The east-west streets carry presidents' names, following the original townsite plan.

How the Garfield Historic District began: the Dennis Addition

Farmer John T. Dennis came from Ohio in 1868 and helped choose the Phoenix townsite in 1870. He recorded the Dennis Addition with Maricopa County on November 16, 1883, only the second addition to the city, and it was annexed to Phoenix in 1899. Germania Place (1909) and Victoria Place (1911, a resubdivision on McKinley between Seventh and Ninth streets) followed.

The Brill Line and Garfield's 10th and Pierce corner

In 1895 the Phoenix Street Railway's Brill Line ran along Pierce Street to 10th Street and north to the Brill Addition; Dennis and Frederick Brill both invested in it. A small commercial center grew at 10th and Pierce, where the streetcar turned north. Brown's Pharmacy, at 1001 East Pierce, was listed on the National Register in 1985.

Verde Park, Garfield's first city well

Verde Park, at Van Buren and Ninth streets, was the site of the first city well and pumping plant. The brick Verde Park Pumphouse is on the National Register (1995), and the park dates to about 1935.

Individually listed houses in the Garfield Historic District

Several buildings carry their own listings: the J.B. Bayless Store #7 on Seventh Street, the George E. Cisney House on McKinley, the Burgess A. Hadsell House on Fillmore, the Phoenix Building & Loan House on Taylor and the E.W. Skinner House on Roosevelt. Garfield Methodist Church on Roosevelt was listed on the National Register in 1993.

HP rules and repair grants in the Garfield Historic District

The City of Phoenix created today's Garfield district in February 2005 by joining and expanding three earlier ones: Victoria Place (April 1989), Dennis Addition (December 2001) and Garfield Place (December 2002). All of it carries the HP overlay. North Garfield, a separate historic district, lies directly north, between Roosevelt Street and Interstate 10.

What Garfield's HP review covers

Outside work that needs a permit, from a porch rebuild to a new rear house, goes to the city for a Certificate of No Effect or, for bigger changes, a Certificate of Appropriateness after a public hearing. The National Register form counts 484 of 769 resources as contributing, about 63%, but the city reviews non-contributing houses too. The explainer on Phoenix HP zoning covers each step.

Garfield on the National Register, and what it saves

The Garfield Historic District was listed on the National Register on June 10, 2010, covering about 160 acres. That listing adds no city rules, but it lets the 484 contributing houses apply for the state's historic property tax program; the Arizona historic property tax guide explains it.

The Exterior Rehabilitation Grant on a Garfield house

The city's grant reimburses half of pre-approved exterior work, with a city share of $5,000 to $20,000, so the job has to total at least $10,000. Roofs, foundations, windows, porches and rear garage or guest house repairs qualify; additions, landscaping and interior work don't. In return the owner sells the city a conservation easement on the exterior for 15 or 20 years, recorded on title, so when you buy a Garfield house, ask whether an earlier owner took a grant: the easement binds you too. The 2026 round is closed, and the city expects to post 2027 round details in July 2027.

Garfield Historic District or Coronado: the price gap

Garfield and Coronado have houses of nearly the same size, a median 1,207 square feet against 1,241, on similar lots of about 6,700 to 6,900 square feet. The Assessor's median value is $130,450 lower in Garfield.

The Assessor's table doesn't explain the gap, so look for it house by house: Garfield's single-family homes share the district with 57 duplexes and 48 apartment buildings, about 45% of houses no longer have their historic windows, and most rear houses are non-historic or altered. Coronado gives you more single-family homes (1,014 against 565) and blocks of bungalows. If the house is sound, Garfield's lower price leaves room in the budget for the work; if you don't want to manage a restoration, start in Coronado.

Census figures for the two tracts that cover Garfield, $373,200 in the south and west and $422,200 in the east (2020 to 2024), sit above the Assessor median because the tracts take in newer housing.

Inspecting a Garfield Historic District house

With a median build year of 1926 and a century of changes, ask the inspector to separate original work from later work, and to look at any rear house as closely as the main one. The historic home inspection guide and the guide to insuring older homes explain what to add. A renovation mortgage can cover the repairs; see the financing guide. When you're ready to look, Joe Janus of Compass can pull recent sales in Garfield, and the guide to all Phoenix historic districts covers the rest of the city.

Garfield Historic District FAQs