Downtown
Phoenix
In 1870, the whole town
of Phoenix encompassed
what would presently
be the Downtown Core,
border by Van Buren Street
south to Jackson Street,
and Seventh Street to
Seventh Avenue. Streets
were laid out in a grid,
with Washington Street as
the main east-west road.
The north-south streets
originally bore Native
American tribal names,
but were changed to more
easily remember numbers,
with everything east of
Center Street (later known
as Central Avenue) names
as streets and everything
west as avenues. As
the town continued to
grow it was eventually
incorporated as a city
on February 28, 1881.