Fifty-two years ago, the Arizona Daily Star’s Homes and Features section eloquently showcased a “glamorous example” of mobile home living, the newest type of community that was growing so quickly, it was predicted that as many as 1 in 9 homes would be moveable.
The mobile home industry in Arizona eventually would make up nearly 11 percent of all housing in the state, and that early glamorous example, featured in the splashy 1963 newspaper layout, has recently been remodeled to its original mobile splendor.
After falling into disrepair, the double-wide mobile home, with an added Arizona room and patio, was bought and restored by the original owners’ daughter-in-law, and is back in the Marshall family.
“I think they would be happy,” said Charlotte Marshall, who, along with her second husband, Ken Kemerling, bought and remodeled the home in The Highlands on the northwest side. “Mom and Dad Marshall loved living here.”
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It’s easy to forget you are in a mobile home when you walk through the front door of the spacious, bright, two-bedroom home that Marshall and Kemerling use for guests. For much of the year, it is filled with their children, grandchildren, great-grandchild and friends from other parts of the country, with the original Star story from June 2, 1963, framed and hanging on the wall.
The serene Highlands neighborhood of about 275 mobile homes and five single family homes, where owners own their own land, has breathtaking views of Pusch Ridge, and includes a pool and community center. It’s the kind of neighborhood where people stay forever.
The Marshall family has a long history at The Highlands, located near Oracle Road and Lambert Lane. (See timeline).
The very first Marshall to move in was Grandma Olive Marshall. Grandma Olive was living in San Diego and struggling with asthma when her son, Don Marshall, a Tucson contractor, spotted a newspaper ad for the new Highlands development. He bought three prime lots, and Grandma Olive became one of the first — if not the first — residents in 1960, living in a single-wide mobile home pretty much in the middle of nowhere at the time.
“Grandma Olive started it all,” Charlotte Marshall recalled. “She wanted to live in a mobile home park. She just liked simple living.”
Grandma Olive became the belle of the Highlands ball. She was president of the Women’s Club, was crowned shuffle-board champion and was featured in a newspaper ad for The Highlands, quoted as saying, “I can breathe again … and feel years younger since moving to The Highlands.”
Over the next decades, other members of the Marshall family have lived in the neighborhood. Don and his wife, Helen Marshall moved in next door to Grandma Olive in 1962. They enjoyed the home until moving to Phoenix in 1966, when they sold it.
In 1969, their son Bart Marshall, an owner of La Quinta Homes, built a casita on the lot on the other side of Grandma Olive’s home for George and Geri Vance, the parents of his wife, Charlotte Marshall.
After the Vance’s deaths, Bart and Charlotte remodeled the home and in 1996, they moved in. Bart died a decade later, and Charlotte has lived there since.
When Don and Helen’s double-wide home became available in 2013, Charlotte and her husband were interested in getting it back into the family.
They took a look but initially decided the property needed too much work. When it remained on the market a couple of months, they bought it.
While the bones of the mobile home were in good shape, it needed a complete overhaul.
Some of Charlotte’s mother-in-law’s touches — including a pink bathroom with pink tub and toilet — were still in place.
The two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot home was transformed, at double the expected cost, Charlotte Marshall said.
The interior was completely gutted and overhauled, and some of Helen Marshall’s formal flourishes remain, including a chandelier that now illuminates the master closet.
All doorways were widened to make it handicap accessible, and a storage room was converted to a laundry room-guest room.
The lovely Arizona room and patio, with striking views of Pusch Ridge, were overhauled, and vines that hid much of the home were removed.
The couple feels fortunate to own two lovely homes in the neighborhood.
“We love the quiet out here,” Charlotte Marshall said. “We have good friends out here.”
“We had both lived in large homes and we decided we didn’t need the large homes anymore,” Kemerling said.
He enjoys watching the faces of guests when they see the home for the first time. “The common reaction by visitors is, ‘Wow.’ It’s fun to be here when they walk in.”
Jan Gates, daughter of Don and Helen Marshall who lives in The Highlands, said she was thrilled the home has been restored and updated.
“I love it,” Gates said. “I think it was so neat they were able to buy this place and bring it back.”
