(Submitted photo/Sun Cities Area Historical Society)
This aerial photo shows construction a few months prior to Sun City’s opening and what existed at Grand and 107th avenues: five model homes, a grocery store, golf course and recreation center. What’s left of the Town of Marinette can be seen in the upper right.
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The Del Webb Sun Cities Museum welcomes back winter residents with a special program on Wednesday, Nov. 4, featuring Anna Andrzejewski discussing how Florida’s retirement communities influenced the creation of Sun City.
The program will be held 2 p.m. Nov. 4 at the museum, 10801 W. Oakmont Drive. Admission is $5 for non-museum members; free to museum members.
Andrzejewski will present “How Florida’s Vacation and Retirement Communities Influenced Del Webb’s Sun City, Arizona.”
She will share her research into South Florida’s retirement villages, examining the kinds of buildings and features adopted by developers to attract older adults to the south after World War II.
Her work sheds light on the initial development of Sun City and how buildings in these Florida retirement communities may have inspired early development in Sun City. She will share stories on places in Florida visited by the Del Webb staff prior to their decision to build Sun City – including meeting with gerontology specialists at the University of Florida to discuss a state-supported idea on housing retired adults.
Andrzejewski is the Frank Lloyd Wright Professor of Modern American Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is completing a book on the history of retirement communities built in the 1950s and ‘60s in South Florida.
The Del Webb Sun Cities Museum is in the first of five model homes built in 1960. Beginning in November, the museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and noon-3 p.m. Sunday.
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