A History of Dreamland Villa

The Farnsworths certainly observed these developments in Youngtown and Sun City and I believe they decided they could do the same in Mesa. Building began near Main Street and Higley. The Farnsworths had little capitol so the building was done in sections. I was told by Ross Farnsworth that his father sold shares in the company to their friends and acquaintances to finance the venture. Building by the Farnsworths began in 1958 and Dreamland Villa was officially opened for sales in January 1959. Construction had progressed enough by 1961 that the Farnsworth’s applied and received a charter from the State of Arizona in June of that year. After one section was sold they went on to build the next.

By July 1962 homes in Sections 1, 2, & 3 are complete. Homes in Section 4 and 5 are under construction and Section 6 to the west of Section 5 was still desert The Read Hall building and the swimming pool appears in the northeast corner of Section 3. It would seem that the hall was built while section 3 was being constructed. As the Farnsworth’s prospered the sections being built became larger. I wonder if they had a vision of how large their development would ultimately become. Section 15 was constructed in the early 70’s. The villa was complete in 1978 when section 19 built by Thomas Development Co. was voted into the community club.

We have accounts in early copies of the Citizen, about the early buyers of homes in Section One. By January 1, 1959 three sales models were on the north side of East Akron Street, east of 54th Street. Eugene Hatch, later the 4th president (1964-5) and originally from Wisconsin purchased the home at 5416 Akron. This made he and his wife the first residents in Dreamland Villa. The date was January 15, 1959. The purchase was completed at the Farnsworth’s residence because no sales office existed at that time. The home on the corner of Akron and 54th St. did serve as a sales office for a short time. What was to become 54th street was at first just a sandy path north from Apache Trail. Water for the homes was an immediate necessity so they formed the Apache Water Company and put in a well and storage tank at 55th Place and Boston. Ross Farnsworth personally dug some of the trenches for the water lines. The first few homes were built with time borrowed from Ross and Jay’s full time jobs and on evenings and weekends. Ross finally resigned his job as a teacher to be a full time manager.

Velda Rose which borders Dreamland villa in places was built by Dave Morgan in two parts. The early section was constructed south of University Drive and east of 62nd Street Just a handful of homes in the 40 acres of Velda Rose western part (just east of Section 5) had been built in 1962.  The Dreamland Villa Golf Course was built by Dave Morgan’s son. Further east is the Buckhorn Baths site which was constructed in the mid 30’s, a then lonely outpost in the desert halfway between Mesa and Apache Junction. The Buckhorn site was built by Ted and Alice Sliger is located at the northwest corner of Recker Road and Apache trail. Alice Sliger lived to the age of 103 and died in November 2010.