Tonka Vista Neighborhood
Ralph Haver and his contemporaries lived here in
the mid Fifties
Surrounding Berridge Lane between 18th and 20th Street
The 1955 home that Ralph Haver built for his family.
The Rose House by Ralph Haver with modifications by Joe Herzog of [merz] projekt. Formerly the Van Gorder home.
The Golson residence. Haver?
? ? ?
Weller residence
Looks like the Kohrs Haver?
Joe Ashton's residence (VP for Del Webb)
The Whitaker home (Later, Scharf home) by Fred Guirey
The Windrow Residence
The Honorable Burton S. Barr Residence? Resident listed as BS Barr in mid 50s.
? ? ?
The "Modern Cottage"style Preston home was featured in the ad below as one of the first builds in the area.
Note that Charles Preston was one of the area's developer's. Soon was inhabited by Tumbridge.
"When I was in the 4th grade we built a new and relatively
huge home on north 20th street. It is still there in great condition
at 6142 N. 20th Street. The neighborhood was nearly all builders and
engineers. Across the street was Ed Varney, next door was Joe Ashton
(president of Del Webb) and also in the neighborhood was Chuck Magadini,
Engineer, Del Trailor the home builder and several other prominent folks.
The second family home was about 2000 sf and seemed huge. We all shared
in the construction. The jobsite was where we spent our weekends for
6-8 months. The neighborhood was new and a paved private street was in
front of us. The area had been citrus orchards for many years. The area
is called "Tonka Vista" and it is now an exclusive limited
access area due to the Piestewa freeway. In regards to the freeway, when
we first went to the 20th street lot, dad drove us around the area. When
we got over on 18th street dad explained that soon this would be a major
highway (we didn't think in terms of freeways here then). This was about
1954. Dad was right, but about 25 years premature. If only the city fathers
had had his foresight and intuitiveness.
The 20th street house was built on 1 acre. Like so many of Ralph's
designs it had a carport, not a garage. The entire interior was redwood,
very contemporary, with clerestory glass. The roof ceiling was identical
to the original Lou Regester (now Copenhagen) on Camelback Road at 18th
Street. It was a distressed exposed wood on edge, very dramatic. The
house had a copper fascia, unpainted masonry and a gravel drive. Still
a viable look. Obviously with a low pitched roof there were expansive
covered patios. Once again brick, but this time a yellow clay. The patios
wre so big it again turned into a 2 year project. I recall dad paying
2 cents a brick as an incentive to get us to work on the patios after
school.
We all did our part, but that was a lot of bricks. The house was unique
in several ways. It had partitions at the bedroom that did not go to
the ceiling. Very stylish in design, but eventually dad had to install
glass at the partition for mom. She always like to sleep later, and 3
boys could be pretty noisy. When we were young and feisty we all had
our scraps. It was considered normal that if I was chasing Steve to his
room and he locked the door, I would just climb over the wall. I drove
mom crazy, but 3 boys were just being boys."
