History of The Catalina Foothills

The history of the Catalina Foothills dates back prior to the early 1920s. In 1915, the Tucson Citizen reported that local developer John Murphey purchased “worthless desert hillsides” which they described as a “folly.” Prior to that purchase, the Catalina Foothills area was primarily federal trust land and open range for cattle grazing. Arizona was the preeminent destination for tuberculosis cures and sanatoriums. John Murphey and his wife Helen had a vision for developing the area and attracting affluent Easterners seeking a winter residence in the desert. This laid the groundwork for one of the most beautiful and prestigious communities in the U.S. Beginning in the 1920s, Murphey began purchasing property north of River Road in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The development he envisioned was for ten subdivisions with large lots, each more than three acres and designed for maximum privacy and the preservation of desert vegetation, wildlife, and mountain and valley views. At a federal land auction in 1928, Murphey secured a 7000-acre tract north of River Road between Oracle Road and Sabino Canyon.

After the stock market crash the following year, Murphey sought to sell some of this land to an Arizona banker for $10 per acre. The banker refused the offer on the grounds that the land was “worthless.” A decade later, the Murpheys would prove him wrong. Murphey teamed up with Swiss-born architect Josias Joesler in the early 1930s, to begin development of what today we would call a master-planned community in the Catalina Foothills. Joesler designed large, luxurious Southwestern and Mexican-style homes on substantial lots, many with views of Tucson. Helen brought furnishings and interior embellishments from Mexico, and Joesler added architectural details distinctive of the Spanish Colonial and Mission revival styles of the era.

Construction started in 1935 on Catalina Foothills Estates, just northeast of the intersection of North Campbell Avenue and East River Road. For more than two decades, Murphey, his wife Helen, and Joesler collaborated on hundreds of buildings. It is noted that John and Helen asked Josias to build them a private chapel at their home. Instead, Joesler persuaded them to build a small church at the corner of Campbell and River, which were two dirt roads at the time. Saint Philip’s in the Foothills was founded in 1936. It was built in the Spanish Colonial style, also called Neo-Mission, which is akin to the Franciscan mission churches built in California between 1769 and 1833. Saint Philip’s is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Murphey’s Contribution to Education in the Area 

In 1929 Murphey built an elite college preparatory boarding school for girls, right in the center of the Foothills, off today's North Hacienda del Sol Road. A sufficient number of people lived in the Foothills near East River Road. By 1931, the Catalina Foothills School District was formed. Catalina Foothills School District 16 began with nine students, three of whom were John and Helen Murphey’s children, and school was held in the Murphey’s garage. Joesler also designed the buildings now occupied by Catalina Foothills School District near River Road and Campbell. The Catalina Foothills School District 16 outgrew the garage, and John Murphey sold the district 2.2 acres for $10 in 1939. Joesler designed the district’s first school building, the River Road School, which today is occupied by district administration. Joesler’s own studio, which he built himself, is a charming, small, adobe brick and tile building that has been preserved and restored.

For Further reading about Josias Joesler and the Catalina Foothills:

The University of Arizona's project "Through our Parent's Eyes," which tells some of the stories of the history and culture of Southern Arizona.

Joesler & Murphy, An Architectural Legacy for Tucson, the University of Arizona College of Architecture, R. Brooks Jeffery, Arizona Architectural Archives.

Special Collections, the University of Arizona Library.

Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation.