In 1988, when the El Encanto Estates neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places, it was the sixth Tucson neighborhood to receive that distinction. The subdivision’s boundaries are East Fifth Street, East Broadway, North Country Club Road and North Jones Boulevard.
The first house in the area was built in 1921 and was a three room cottage. That structure had undergone too much change to qualify, but 53 homes in the area did qualify as a “contributing property.”
El Encanto’s circle and spoke design layout was the first to break away from Tucson’s more common grid street pattern. At the time of the designation, 157 saguaros were included in the circular park at the center of the development. Hundreds of date and fan palms planted in 1929 still lined the streets.
The neighborhood included actress Elizabeth Taylor and author Erskine Caldwell among its residents, as well as many prominent Tucsonans
101 homes to be built on NW Tucson corner