Chandler, Arizona

In 1891, Dr. Alexander John Chandler, the first veterinary surgeon in Arizona Territory, settled on a ranch south of Mesa and studied irrigation engineering. By 1900, he had acquired 18,000 acres (73 km²) of land and began drawing up plans for a townsite on what was then known as the Chandler Ranch. The townsite office opened on May 16, 1912.

(Soon after celebrating Chandler's Centennial on May 17, 2012, Chandler Museum staff discovered that the city had been celebrating the wrong date.[5] In May 1912, the Chandler Arizonan newspaper had erroneously published the founding day as May 17, and through the years residents had misremembered the correct date, which was Thursday, May 16, 1912.)

The original townsite was bounded by Galveston Street on the north, Frye Road on the south, Hartford Street on the west, and Hamilton Street on the east.[6] By 1913, a town center had become established, featuring the Hotel San Marcos, which also had the first grass golf course in the state. Chandler High School was established in 1914.[7] Chandler incorporated on February 16, 1920, after 186 residents petitioned the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to approve incorporation. Town founder A.J. Chandler was chosen as the president of the first town council and the town's first mayor.

Most of Chandler's economy was sustained during the Great Depression (though the Depression was to blame for the cancellation of a second San Marcos hotel), but the cotton crash a few years later had a much deeper impact on the city's residents. Later, the founding of Williams Air Force Base in 1941 led to a small surge in population, but Chandler still only held 3,800 people by 1950. By 1980, it had grown to 30,000, and it has since paced the Phoenix metropolitan area's high rate of growth, with suburban residential areas swallowing former agricultural plots. Some of this growth was fueled by the establishment of manufacturing plants for communications and computing firms such as Microchip, Motorola and Intel.

Since the early 1990s, the city of Chandler has experienced exponential growth, ranking among the fastest-growing municipalities in the country. The population had grown to more than 275,000 residents in more than 100,000 homes as of 2020. The heart of Chandler remains its revitalized historic downtown, which includes the Chandler City Hall and the Chandler Center for the Arts. In 2010, Chandler was named an All-America City by the National Civic League. Chandler was the only Arizona winner for the 61st annual awards.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Chandler has a total area of 65.5 square miles (170 km²), of which 0.07 square miles (0.18 km²), or 0.11%, are listed as water.[2] The center of the city, along Arizona State Route 87, is 22 miles (35 km) southeast of Downtown Phoenix.

Chandler has reached its physical limits save for some remaining county islands and cannot expand outward anymore due to being bound in by the Gila River Indian Community, Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, and Phoenix.

At the time of the 2010 Census, there were 236,123 people, 86,924 households, and 60,212 families in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 73.3% White, 4.8% Black or African American, 1.5% Native American, 8.2% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, and 8.3% of other races. 21.9% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.[10]

There were 62,377 households, out of which 41.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.5% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.2% were non-families. Of all households 19.3% were made up of individuals, and 3.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.26.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 29.8% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 38.0% from 25 to 44, 17.8% from 45 to 64, and 5.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.9 males.

There were 101,229 housing units as of May 2016.[11] The median income for a household in the city was $70,456, and the median income for a family was $81,720. Males had a median income of $44,578 versus $31,763 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,904. About 4.6% of families and 6.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.7% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over.

Computer chip manufacturer Intel has an influential role in city growth strategies with four locations in the municipal area, including its first factory to be designated "environmentally sustainable" under current Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria.[12] Other high-technology manufacturing firms have partnerships with the local government,[13] their operations employing approximately 25% of non-government workers in 2007.[14] Although per capita employment growth in the sector has been in decline in Arizona since 2000, semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing was largely unaffected;[15] a series of customized grants for the training of net new employees, incorporating the Phoenix urbanized area (27,000 workers now commute to work in other communities), resulted in a larger market share of (Californian) industry.

Since 2003, more than 2,900 jobs and investments totalling $3 billion have been created along the Price and Santan freeways,[16] in the Price Road Corridor.[17] Three shopping malls provide a "strong attraction" to such an open-ended, high exposure[18] trade area: the 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m²) Chandler Fashion Center, opened in 2001, has spurred on several courts and laneway developments.[19] In the southern end of the Corridor, Wal-Mart is expected to draw business from as far south as Hunt Highway, bringing with it a "large consumer population" which will improve "the image and perception of the area" in the mindset of many Greater Phoenix residents and state commercial retailers. The northern portion is "attractive and possesses the historic character" for success, which "can be grown to the south".[20]

Companies headquartered in Chandler include Infusionsoft, Microchip, and Rogers. Bashas' headquarters is in a county island surrounded by Chandler.

A.J. Chandler Park, in downtown Chandler, contains a tumbleweed Christmas tree during the holidays.

Chandler is noted for its annual Ostrich Festival.[22] Initially, agriculture was the primary business in Chandler, based on cotton, corn, and alfalfa. During the 1910s, there were ostrich farms in the area, catering to the demand for plumes used in women's hats of the era. This demand ebbed with the increasing popularity of the automobile, but the legacy of the ostrich farms would be commemorated by the Ostrich Festival. The Chandler Center for the Arts, a 1,500-seat regional performing arts venue and the Vision Gallery, a non-profit fine arts gallery representing over 300 regional artists in the Chandler[23] area are downtown, and the Arizona Railway Museum is at Tumbleweed Park. A 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m²) Holocaust and Tolerance Museum has been slated for construction in Chandler.[24]

There are numerous properties in the town of Chandler which are considered to be historical and have been included either in the National Register of Historic Places[25] or listed as such by the Chandler Historical Society. The Historic McCullough-Price House, a 1938 Pueblo Revival-style home, was donated to the city by the Price-Propstra family in 2001. The city renovated and opened it to the public in 2007. On June 12, 2009, the McCullough-Price House was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the official listing of America's historic and cultural resources worthy of preservation. The city of Chandler operates the facility, which is southwest of Chandler Fashion Center at 300 S. Chandler Village Dr.

Lake at Village of Gila Springs subdivision, Chandler

On May 18, 2016, a national nonprofit parks and recreation advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., announced that Chandler was a 2016 Playful City USA community, marking the tenth consecutive year the city earned the distinction (one of twelve founding U.S. cities to receive the honor for the tenth consecutive year since the program was initiated in 2007).[26] Chandler was recognized for taking an innovative approach to making play a priority throughout the city with its many recreational amenities, parks and aquatic centers.

Kevin Hartke presenting the State of the City in 2020

Chandler is represented by a mayor, a vice mayor and five city council members. The vice mayor is elected by the city council from among its members. The mayor, vice mayor and council members represent the entire city and are not elected from districts or wards.

Mayor: Kevin Hartke[1]
Vice Mayor: Matt Orlando[1]
Council Members

• Christine Ellis
• OD Harris
• Mark Stewart
• Jane Poston
• Angel Encinas

Chandler has only one radio license: KMLE.

The public hospital system, Valleywise Health (formerly Maricopa Integrated Health System), operates Valleywise Community Health Center – Chandler. Its sole hospital, Valleywise Health Medical Center, is in Phoenix.[31]

Austin Hollins

• Ryan Bader, MMA fighter
• Cody Bellinger, MLB player for the Chicago Cubs
• Hunter Bishop (born 1998), baseball player
• Jakob Butturff, professional ten-pin bowler
• Zora Folley, professional heavyweight boxer
• Austin Hollins (born 1991), basketball player for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
• Markus Howard, Marquette all-time leading basketball scorer
• Cameron Jordan, football player for the New Orleans Saints
• Shawn Michaels, professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer
• Patrick Murphy, MLB pitcher for the Minnesota Twins
• James Rallison (TheOdd1sOut), YouTube animator
• Chase Lucas, football player for the Detroit Lions

Chandler has two sister cities:[32]

• Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland – since 2008
• Tainan, Taiwan[33]

• Pueblo de Los Muertos
• Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park

• Official website
• Visit Chandler, official City of Chandler tourism website