What’s With All the Backyard Concrete-Block Fences in the Valley?
Excerpt from Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Originally published November 2, 1999.)
Q: What is it with the “wall phenomenon” around here? Who invented the idea of backyard concrete-block fences and why?
A: Funny you should ask.
We are just back from a trip to the ancestral estate in the Midwest, and one of the first things our charming traveling companion asked—after she asked why Grandma didn’t get MTV—was why nobody had fences around their yards.
We were taken aback by her question, because we hadn’t really noticed until she asked. (We were also taken aback by a rather alarming shortage of pie in Grandma’s refrigerator, cupboards, car, closet, under the beds and everywhere else we looked, and we are wondering if, in addition to not rocking out on MTV, the sainted woman has abandoned rhubarb. We had to make do with cookies.)
Anyway, your query was on our desk when we got back, and we immediately called Max Underwood, a professor of architecture at Arizona State University, who is really, really smart and whose specialty is Valley architecture, and we riddled him your riddle.
Thus spake Underwood: “If you traveled in the Southwest, if you went to Santa Fe or Tucson or the older areas where there was Spanish influence, there were walls. The walls were there for protection of livestock or for safety, but they were low walls so you could see over them.
“What transpired here in the Phoenix area is that many of the building codes and zoning regulations require these walls” for privacy, safety and to hamper the spread of fire.
Plus, a lot of homeowners’ associations require concrete-block fences, presumably for privacy — to keep you from seeing what’s going on in your neighbor’s back yard or to spare your neighbor from seeing what’s going on in your back yard.
Walls are a Valley — or at least Southwest — kind of thing.
“If you went to Southern California,” Underwood said, “you would find more chain-link fences or wood fences with vegetation or things that blended more with the landscape. Out here, you get The Wall.’’
I lived in Tempe for two years and I always wondered what the story behind the walls were. Thanks for the info!
The walls are great for protection but fences look nicer although in this weather I don’t know how well they will last. As for privacy, wooden fences look nicer.
For 32 years we made a life out of building block wall fences for Colorado Springs. We started in the mid 70’s. Before this there were wooden fences and every three to four years they would turn gray and blow away. Our first job was in Briargate. We used brick and block pilasters with wood fencing in-between but soon filled in the whole wall with block. Smooth face block, block with stucco, split-face block, and later we used rock. The block fences turn the sandy lifeless acreage into something more. People liked it and they were willing to pay more money for the land. From 1976 to 2008, we helped turn Colorado Springs into a town of 78,000 into a town of almost a million. The block fences along with the monument signs made developers and homeowners happy. 32 years of creating miles of block fence and they’re still there today. That’s a good reason to choose block.
Sounds like 32 years of long lasting craftsmanship. I am trying to get a 6 ft block fence made out of Solid Blocks 4x8x16. If provide the blocks, how would I find an actual builder to build it? I need 3 walls 45 ft each.
In my experience having lived in Tucson for 30+ years, I have noticed that termites do not eat block walls as readily as they eat wood fences, fierce thunderstorms do not blow down block walls as readily as they blow down wood fences, and, from what I have read, block walls have traditionally stopped Apache bullets and arrows more readily than wood fences.
I suspect that in addition to this, walls were encouraged in Phoenix due to the number of homes with swimming pools, which require a fence around them. A block wall was a relatively cheap and easy way to do this and to create more privacy at the same time.
I was born here in 1956, lived in Scottsdale from 1958 up until the late 70’s we mostly had Wood fences, then things started to change and Block fences became the Fad, not because of the many Pools, that was started in the 80’s when the Child drownings started to increase……
On the subject of wood vs block, here’s how an old real estate salesman explained it to me back in the ’70s :
Back then, a low-end house was priced about 5-10 thousand less than one with a Block fence. The mid-price builders all used block, and the reason was that a few years down the road, the wood fences begin to ‘ fall apart ‘ in varioius ways, taking down the home resale value in the process Even tho the houses may be all in good repair, the entire neighborhood takes on the look of a Ghetto of sorts. You can now see the assorted crap in people backyards, pickets missing,etc. All because of the ugly wooden fences in various states of disrepair. And then you began to see a block fence replacement ‘ here and there ‘, and the cycle continues until everyone has replaced their ugly fence with block(at a now extremely high price). If only they had used block in the first place…
I saw this happen in my neighborhood. The salesman was right !
When my family moved to Scottsdale in 1961, there were no fences (other than corrals) at all between most of the houses where we lived. We were on a commercial acre with horse privileges, as were the other homes in our area. As kids, we were taught that you did not trespass. That meant that you didn’t ride your horse or bike across anyone else’s property, you kept your dogs at home as much as possible, and you didn’t make anyone else’s yard your playground unless you were playing there with their kids and it was OK with their parents. You didn’t need a fence to tell you to keep out. It was a matter of courtesy and respect. But, what we saw, in the 10 years that we lived in that area, was an erosion of respect. Kids began shortcutting across neighbors’ lawns. Dogs ran in packs. Kids you didn’t even know played in your yard, sat on your patio, made themselves at home. People picked up anything that wasn’t nailed down and walked off with it and vandalized what they couldn’t take. So, the chain link, stake, and block fences began going up. Most homes in the area did NOT have pools, but when pools began being retroed on those properties, more block walls went up around them for both privacy and security. When they “improved” a once-quiet community street and the traffic began to roll at all hours of the day and night, more block fence went up to buffer the sound. As has already been pointed out by other posters here, block fence was sturdy, quick to assemble (the prefab sort), and kept kids and dogs both in and out, depending on your goal. So, in my view, the block fences of at least the north Scottsdale area represent a change in culture, values, expectations, attitudes, and social responsibility.
My father despised block fences and all they stood for. He refused to install one. Instead… we moved.
I accept all of the above comments as honest. To the originator, however, and those who propogated and expanded these classless walls throughout the valley, I have another message: TEAR DOWN THOSE WALLS! NONE of the reasons stand the test of ‘only option’ or best option to contribute to a long-term healthy ‘community’. (Note the word ‘commun’!)
To simply ‘keep out’ others….wrought iron has long been the preference in the classier communities of the world…and there are plenty of awesome welders in the area able to install them, etc….
For Privacy? First off, it is over-rated, when it comes to a ‘home’ in a community. We have an obligation to TEACH people how to respect , build and maintain their homes…not make it easy for them to hide their personal slum behind a concrete wall. This is all wrong on so many levels. It is easier to hide a terrorist, or illegal alien, or 6 families living in one home, etc. behind those walls.
For Fire safey….Maybe. But it’s ironic that Arizona is a state that does frowns on individuals providing their own ‘fire protection’ , since the Fire departments want to retain the ‘business’. It would be cheaper to include a ‘house wrap’ with each home…or install a wild fire-retardant system; and there wouldn’t be any ‘home owner’ involvement…..
And there’s a million more comments, I’ll make later. Bottom line, it is a lazy way to put low-cost labor to work in low-cost homes for low-valued results. It breeds self-interest, non-involved, bickering neighbors; barking dogs that you cannot see; family abuses, and more.
Concrete walls are practical. They keep out sand during a dust storm, won’t blow over as readily in a tornado, and work to keep out snakes and other critters from your yard. It’s a western thing.
HOW MANY TORNADOES HAVE THERE BEEN IN ARIZONA OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS??
around 120.
I was born in Mesa, but now live in Los Angeles. My house is on the side of a hill with the brushline just behind me. I’ve got a concrete block wall in the backyard to keep the rattlesnakes out. There are plenty of them in the hills and they occasionally get down on the concrete, front lawns, garages etc. A block wall keeps them out of the backyard and avoids “surprises” while gardening.
We had a wooden fence in Yuma and Sierra Vista and the termites loved the taste.
I have a concrete hall around my tiny Mesa home and it is my most favorite thing about this property. It keeps out critters, people, noise, wind, blowing seeds from weeds, etc. And I do not use my block wall to “hide my personal slum” as is suggested above. But rather I enjoy the privacy it provides in the very small space I occupy in my neighborhood. Behind my wall I “conceal” a beautiful green lawn, lots of flowers, and a shady pavilion to sit under. Without a wall, my home would be more like an apartment: not much space and no privacy.
Living in south Florida and having visited the Phoenix area I always wondered why everyone has concrete fences. Thanks for the info!
Love the concrete fences. It makes your house more private, and secure against predators (mostly humans). It defines your property. If people plant nice evergreens all around it makes the place look nice and inviting to your family/friends. Dr. Wayne S. (an OB/gyn physician), and Victoria Blocker (Gerontology) in Florida – both retired.
My parents lived here in the mid 1950’s – there house was just off Central above Northern Ave. Definitely the ‘edge’ of the city then. As I recall from home movies and photos their house had a block wall around the back yard. My Dad explained that the walls were there because, as the city expanded into the desert/farmland, the walls were there to keep desert wildlife out, not so much for privacy. Sounds like that wasn’t quite correct.
I assumed they used block walls because it held the heat in the evening and cool in the morning. Plus they kept scorpions out.
Loving my wall to conceal 6 families all illegal aliens!(Eye roll while reading a previous poster) LOL
Anyways, we purchased a brand new home back in 2015 and the wall had started the rotting stage. That’s less than 5 years! They get discolored if you’re lucky.
Recently moving with a home with concrete walls I do enjoy the privacy in between neighbors, and the protection from the Main Street behind us. I think maintenance is very similar…
I enjoyed reading the responses because this was really new to me too.