Home Styles In The Willo Phoenix Historic District

The Willo Historic District in Midtown Phoenix is amongst the most favorite and popular of the 35 historic districts due to the very well attended annual home tour and related advertising and also due to the charming, often story book homes.

Willo is actually some 20 different subdivisions built over several decades in which much happened. 

The first homes were mostly from the revival period. 

The Tudor is a very common style seen in Willo as is the Spanish Colonial Revival and Hacienda style homes.

Later after much turmoil in the world the ranch and modern era arrived.

The ranch style homes dominates the newer Northern section of Willo where streets are wider and all the homes are single story except for a few homes. The ranch is primarily a post World War II style which quickly came to dominate the Phoenix landscape as the post war boom began.

Modernism is not so common in the historic district and one does not usually thing of Willo as anything but historic, yet there are a few examples of modern architecture in the central portion of Willo. This is odd in itself as the surrounding homes are primarily revivals: so there much have been a few empty lots left and these examples of modernism took filled them in.

And over the years many of the homes took on the characters of the owners and evolved over time for the better and sometimes for the worse. It's inevitable that owners customize homes not to the original architecture or character of the property: there are a few examples of those, but for the most part Willo retains that historic charm, character and distinct architecture.

Willo is a rather large neighborhood and one can spend a good bit of time admiring the various architectural styles and homes and how people have adapted the historic homes to contemporary living.