I was in Phoenix on Thursday for a job interview, and I remembered my grandmother telling me about growing up in Chandler for part of her childhood. I knew a few details about my great grandfather, so I took to the Internet for some research, to possibly have a story to tell about my family background in the area.
Turns out my great grandfather was one of the earliest residents of the town. When the town incorporated in 1920, my great grandfather was elected to the first City Council in Chandler. He was a homeowner in the oldest neighborhood in the town, the Silk Stockings Neighborhood, a couple blocks from where he ran the pharmacy/drugstore in
the historic San Marcos Hotel. Another neighborhood resident a block away was
the Basha family, immigrants from Lebanon who started a supermarket chain (now with 130 stores) in the Southwest. The
high school Maurice Kirby attended in Chandler was named for one of the sons in the Basha family.
My grandmother's family lived in Chandler from approximately 1915 to 1926, when they moved back to California. Today, Chandler is estimated by the Census Bureau to have 260,828 people.