Thanks to my Arizona cyber buddy Homer, I was able to acquire all the advertising goodness which follows. (The photos are mine.) Click on any image to embiggen…
First up, an article about and an ad for the photographically-reclusive Showcase of Homes:
This ad dates from the late 60s, about the same time that the Showcase of Homes opened:
The next four ads are all from the early 1960s. The first Hallcraft home we lived in was The Pinafore:
I always thought this was a cool plan, probably because it was a full two story house (rare for Phoenix in those days):
I can't tell you how thrilled I was to find this next one today. At one time I had a notebook that had nearly all of the single sheet floor plan and exterior rendering sheets for each model that the builder gave out (sadly, lost in a move in the late 80s along with several binders full of audio equipment brochures), but this was one floor plan that I never had in the collection and I'd always wondered how it was laid out:
This was probably my favorite plan of all time:
The Villas started out as a good idea, but now, thirty years later, without exception they're all ghetto and look like armed camps:
This was my family's second Hallcraft home, the one I lived in during my high school and college years:
Don'cha love the blatantly misogynistic advertising? (It was the 60s after all…) I also think it's funny how Hallcraft regurgitated this particular plan through several different incarnations over the years, finally abandoning it in the early 70s:
This is really cool. I almost get homesick for Az.
I'm diggin this nostalgia series you got goin on. I have always loved la Hacienda! Shopped a few of them but they don't come up often and when I was looking they always seemed to be just out of my reach. I could probably get me one now; hmm, my retirement place? There are 7 Park Scottsdale homes on mls tonight, $225-370K. Alas, no Hacienda models.
The prices alone shock me. Wow. $13K to $18K. Ho Lee Krapp!
"Step-down living room." Why? Tripping hazard, a nightmare for old people. I never understood why that was popular.
The style of house with the slightly overhanging second floor was extremely popular in northern Michigan in the 1960s-1970s. When I go back now they all look dated and ugly.