McCormick Ranch

But the 160-acres master-planned community turned out to be the bell cow for the many that followed, creating Scottsdale’s mid-town Garden District of ranch homes, with green yards and full of residential amenities. That includes a pair of championship golf courses, tennis courts, city parks, seven lakes totaling 130 acres, and 25 miles of bike and walking paths. 

It also sports its own shopping areas with restaurants, retail, service businesses, and entertainment at the Seville Shopping Center, along Hayden Road, and elsewhere. Nearby on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community are the Scottsdale Pavilions, Talking Stick Resort, Spring Training, and multiple events at the Salt River Fields. And the community is not far from all the amenities in DownTown Scottsdale, including Old Town, the Arts District, the Waterfront, and Scottsdale Fashion Square. Many green areas are connected to Scottsdale Indian Bend Wash.

In case you’re wondering, the McCormick name comes from  Fowler McCormick, who owned the land with his wife Anne in the early 1940s. It was the summer home for this grandson of both harvester inventor Cyrus McCormick and John D. Rockefeller. Anne was an Arabian horse aficionado, and the early Arabian Horse Shows were held in a 150-acre park in the ranch she had dedicated for that. 

It’s now home to about 14,000 people within five square miles of mid-priced to luxury homes and an icon of Scottsdale’s Garden District master-planned development.