John F. Long became a household name in the 1950s with the creation of Maryvale, a massive planned community in Phoenix comprising more than 30,000 single-family homes integrated with schools, shopping centers, and community buildings all woven together. After building Maryvale, John did another, lesser-known project in the mid-1980s called Solar 1, whose story I have not seen told anywhere else. I will cover that after a little backstory on John F. Long and his rise to become the most prolific homebuilder in Arizona's history.
John F. Long Builds a House
In 1947, the 27-year old Long had returned from his service in the US military during World War II. He took an $8,000 GI loan to build a home for himself and his wife, Mary. After six months, the home was completed at a cost of $4,200.
Before they could move in, Long received an offer of $8,500 for the newly-completed home and, savvy businessman that he was, sold the home for a handsome profit. He repeated the process, building 15 more homes before finally settling into a place of his own. Between 1951 and 1954 he built nearly 1,600 homes in West Phoenix.
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| On March 5, 1948 John F. and Mary P. Long sold their first house, located at 7017 N. 23rd Avenue in Phoenix to Mr. and Mrs. Walter. Photo by: Commercial Executive Magazine, Issue 7, 2012 |
Long had recognized the incredible opportunity that was present in the form of the post-war economic boom following World War II. Affordable single-family housing was in high demand in 1954. Long figured out how to mass-produce single family homes that could be built quickly and at scale. By using modular mass production techniques such as component assembly of roof trusses, wall sections, and custom-designed cabinetry, assembled at the site, he could cut construction time. His innovations in housing were similar to what Henry Ford did for the automobile - he made it affordable to the masses.
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| John F. Long with GE Spokesman Ronald Reagan at the GE Award Home in Maryvale, 1958. |
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| John F. Long shows GE spokesman Ronald Reagan features of Maryvale's GE Award Home, 1958. Photo by: Power Lines by Andrew Needham |
In 1954, John F. Long Homes began building a massive new community in Phoenix which he called Maryvale after his wife, Mary. What made this neighborhood different was that it had a master plan, which included space for schools, churches, hospitals, shopping centers and parks.
Maryvale was the first master planned community in Arizona, and would become the blueprint that many other homebuilders would use for the next 70 years. Del Webb used a very similar concept in developing the very first master-planned retirement community, Sun City, in 1959 through the 1980s.
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| Maryvale Model Homes: Greatest Home Show on Earth |
Maryvale was a smash hit that made John F. Long a rockstar real estate developer. Buyers could purchase a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a swimming pool for less than $10,000 (approximately $95,000 in 2020). By 1956, two years into the project, his company was selling 125 new homes per week. Between 1954 and 1979, more than 31,000 homes were built in Maryvale, with half of those built by John F. Long. In 1990, the company closed its homebuilding operation to focus on retail and commercial projects in the West Valley.
Long wasn't just a homebuilder - he wanted to build communities. He donated countless acres of land to the community and to county, state, and federal governments. The success of Maryvale brought him a number of accolades including Citizen of the Year in 1957, induction to the National Housing Hall of Fame in Washington D.C. in 1984, the Arizona Businessman’s Hall of Fame in the 1990s, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from WestMARC in the year 2000.
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| A 1950s era billboard for John F. Long homes, advertising a luxury compact home for $9,400. |
Solar 1 - The World's First Solar Subdivision
But, the whole reason for this post is not to tell the story of Maryvale. I want to tell the story of what John F. Long did after his magnum opus. This is the story of the little-known project called Solar 1.
The origins of Solar 1 go back to 1979, when John F. Long companies built a "solar demonstration home" with an array of photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof. In a 1985 interview with Canyon Echo, the newsletter for the Arizona Chapter of the Sierra Club, Long had this to say about that first demonstration home:
"We first used photovoltaics (PV) as part of the roof of that house, but eventually moved the panels because part of the roof created shadows. There were also some problems with maintaining and cleaning off the panels and visually, there was an aesthetic problem."
There was a plan to build a solar-powered neighborhood of 100 homes in the Moon Valley area of North Phoenix, but according to the article, the U.S. Department of Energy pulled out of the project, following President Reagan's budget cuts in 1981.
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| Solar 1 Neighborhood at 71st Dr. and Osborn Rd. in Phoenix Photo: North Phoenix Blog |
Still, the project to build a solar neighborhood was not dead. It re-surfaced in 1985 as a scaled-down project called Solar 1, with 24 lots located at 71st Drive and Osborn Road in Phoenix. This time, the project was totally financed without government participation.
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| A 1985 advertisement for Solar 1 by John F. Long Homes |
The first homes were completed in 1985, with final lots being sold around 1989. The homes in Solar 1 range in size from 1,600 to 2,200 square feet. The whole neighborhood is powered by 2,600 flat plate photovoltaic panels from Arco Solar, arranged in two long rows of racks along one side of the neighborhood. The racks are connected to an inverter which changes direct current to alternating. The system has a peak generation power of 192 kilowatts.
The neighborhood is also connected to the local electric grid as a backup. The subdivision has no battery storage, but with careful energy usage, homeowners will have very small electric bills, and in some cases may even produce excess energy, which is sold back to the utility provider.
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| Map of Solar 1 neighborhood in Phoenix |
Solar 1 was the world's first solar subdivision. It is unique for being one of the only photovoltaic central power plants in Arizona that is not operated by a utility company. But to me, the real genius of Solar 1 is that the solar panels are just one part of the project. The homes themselves are also extremely energy efficient, using a rammed-earth construction method and exterior walls which are 21 inches thick.
From the 1985 Canyon Echo newsletter:
"In order to make PV cost-effective, we had to rethink the total building, not just the photovoltaics themselves. After evaluating the whole project, we decided to go with rammed earth walls for thermal storage. What we're doing is putting each home's insulation on the outside of the home to keep the heat out and the rammed earth walls cool.
Starting from the outside, we have stucco-covered urethane foam, then a one-inch dead air space. Next comes the rammed earth wall which is covered on the inside by sheetrock.
Overall, the wall is 21 inches thick; the rammed earth part is 16 inches thick. Again, by putting the insulation on the exterior, heat doesn't get in. On our demonstration rammed earth model home, we have thermocouplers built into the wall (Editor's note: for temperature monitoring). The center thermocoupler didn't vary but one degree over the last few days. Those rammed earth walls can hold three days worth of cooling.
The walls and home interior are cooled in the morning with the evaporative cooler (or maybe refrigeration, depending on the owner). The wall releases coolness at a slow, even rate from top to bottom, without drafts. It's like living in a basement but above ground level."
The 24 homes in the Solar 1 subdivision look like any other homes in the area, but are constructed using rammed earth exterior walls which are 21 inches thick, and combined with a photovoltaic central power plant for highly energy efficient living.
I think that the idea of combining energy-efficient rammed earth construction homes with a solar central power plant was brilliant. The idea with this community was not to make them homes look like some wacky "house of the future" but to show that energy efficient homes could be done and they could look normal. Indeed, the neighborhood blends in well with the surrounding area, and no one would suspect that these 24 homeowners have a utility bill that is a fraction of what their neighbors pay.
It is too bad that the idea of building highly energy efficient homes that look totally normal did not progress beyond this one subdivision in West Phoenix. I think that Solar 1 was a great idea that was ahead of its time.
This John F. Long sidewalk stamp from 1983 is at G. Frank Davidson
Elementary School, across the street from the Solar 1 subdivision.
For more about Solar 1, check out this video I found on YouTube. It was recorded in 1988, and features an interview with Larry and Jackie, a retired couple who purchased the very first home in the development. I found it amusing how they emphasize that they are not environmentalists - but that they purchased the home purely for the cost savings on electricity.
