Russell Lee's Phoenix

In 1940, photographer Russell Lee visited Phoenix. His main task was taking pictures of Farm Security Administration projects in the city. He joined such distinguished federal photographers as Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein.

The FSA was created in 1937 to help ease rural poverty. Among its signature Phoenix operations were Camelback Farms, northeast of downtown and intended to create a stable environment for displaced farm families, and the United Producers and Consumers Cooperative, with about 12,000 members, mostly farmers.

But the trip yielded much more, including some iconic images of Phoenix as the Great Depression was loosening its grip and war was looming. Born in Ottawa, Illinois, in 1903, Lee died in Austin in 1986. 

I've written about Phoenix in the 1940s here. Below is some of his work from the Library of Congress. Click on an image for a larger view.

Welcome sign outside of town, with the meeting days, times, and places of service clubs.

Central and Washington, with Lerner Shops, movie theaters, and streetcar tracks.

The famous saguaro streetlamp across from the Hotel Westward Ho. Only one was made, outside the Chamber of Commerce.

The auditorium of Phoenix Union High School on beautifully landscaped grounds.

Another building on the PUHS campus.

And another shot showing PUHS at lunchtime.

These students are being photographed for the senior play.

My favorite Lee photo is of the Nifty Nook, serving students but also travelers 24 hours a day. It was on the southeast corner of Van Buren and Seventh streets. Monroe School is in the right background.

Palm-lined Latham Street at Seventh Avenue. The street looked much the same when I was growing up nearby in the 1960s. It was lost to the Papago Freeway Inner Loop.

 

Lee labeled this one of the oldest buildings in Phoenix. The location is not given.

People listen to a band outside a store.

Night view of the neon auto court signs along Van Buren.

Tents and shacks "on the other side of the tracks."

A handsome apartment house at Seventh Avenue and Monte Vista. The building is still there.

The expansive Tovrea feedlots and slaughterhouses along Van Buren east of 52nd Street and served by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Lee made a side trip along the Apache Trail on the way to...

Theodore Roosevelt Dam.

Below are shots of the Co-op and Camelback Farms:

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.

 

 

 

Comments

[Gail A Luck]

Awesome, Jon. Thank you so much for the photos of Phoenix in the 40's. My mom & dad would have been in their 20's.

[El Kabong]

Thanks for sharing these. I love the welcome sign with the population identified as 109,912.

[El Kabong]

After I posted, I was thinking that population figure sounded high for 1940. I checked Wikipedia and it reports the 1940 population of Phoenix as 65,414. I don't know what accounts for the discrepancy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Phoenix,_Arizona

[James McAllister]

Great post, John. You never disappoint when it comes to Phoenix and Arizona history.

[Rogue Columnist]

El Kabong, I suspect the higher number is the county.

[Elizabeth Farquhar]

I love this ... My family wasn't here yet but their towns looked similar, even in the east. The matrons in the tie-up black shoes -- my Grandma Mary. Oh my heart!

[DoggieCombover]

Harking back to a time when photographs were actually a carefully considered art form. Only so many shots on a roll of film, time needed for development and printing--at a not inconsiderable cost. Instead, a tsunami of haphazard digital garbage like selfies, what your last meal was, your latest purchase and the like cluttering up and devaluing memories.

[Pat]

I see Technocracy Inc had local adherents and promoters. I had to look 'em up. Way down the rabbit hole, maybe further down than Q-nuts.

[El Kabong]

This post inspired me to spend a couple of hours looking through Lee's Arizona photos on the Library of Congress website. They're a mixed bag but some are real gems. Thanks again.

[Jerry]

Recognize a few of these places (even from a later future). Wish there was a forest of those saguaro street lights.

[Paul M.]

That saguaro streetlight was saved and is currently at Paseo Highlands Park at 35th Ave & Pinnacle Peak Rd.

[Allan Starr]

I feel the signage should include Phoenix Jaycees (est. 1929), who - among staging 50+ community events annually, helped greatly with the WWII effort, and whose Rodeo of Rodeo raised ($)hundreds of thousands which were distributed through its Phoenix Community Welfare Foundation.