Surprise

It was originally El Mirage 2, where those who “made good” could move up to a nicer neighborhood, according to his daughter, Katherine Lieber, and stepdaughter, Virginia Fetterer. El Mirage - where a park is named after him - was established first as a haven for the poor. “He believed everyone should have the opportunity to own a piece of land,” Fetterer said.

Ludden, born Nov. 27, 1880 to Charles W. and Emma Jane Clark, moved to Glendale in 1905 and went to work as a milkman. He started dating fellow Nebraskan Edna Robinson, the daughter of a customer on his Glendale route and they had “an understanding” until a lover’s quarrel broke them up, according to later newspaper accounts. Robinson married John Prichett and had a child, Virginia.

Ludden remained a bachelor and from 1912 to about 1916 worked as a mail carrier on Glendale’s first rural route. He opened a small real estate office on the northwest corner of Glendale and 59th avenues, adjoining the Ludden/Gillett service station. His partner was Glendale founder and brethren minister Charles Gillett.

After Robinson was widowed, the pair resumed their relationship and by the time they married on Sept. 27, 1922, Ludden was “prominent rancher and business man,” a member of the Glendale Town Council, a charter member of the Glendale Masonic Lodge and a large property owner in Glendale, according to the newspaper announcement of their marriage. That same year, the Democrat was elected as a representative to the sixth State Legislature. He served three terms – eight years in all - including some special sessions in 1928 under Gov. George W.P. Hunt.

Robinson divorced Ludden in 1948, and much to the surprise of friends and family, Ludden married Flora Mae Statler - daughter of his former partner, Gillett - in about 1950.

Statler started working for Ludden in the early 1920s pumping gas, but gradually became more involved with the real estate office. It’s Statler’s name that appears on Surprise’s first subdivision plat dated April 15, 1938, and until Ludden’s family stepped forward with documentation a couple of years ago, she was credited with the founding and naming of Surprise.

The story was that Statler, upon subdividing a piece of land, remarked that it ever became a town it would be a surprise.

No surprises when the City incorporated in 1960 with a population of about 1,000, and even when Del Webb’s highly successful Sun City swelled westward, Surprise stayed a sleepy square-mile stop on Grand Avenue. The boundaries stretched a little when Happy Trails and Sun Village opened in the early 1980s and Bell Road was widened to make way for development, but it was the slingshot growth of the 1990s that brought Surprise to 72-square-miles.

Between 1995 to today, the population has multiplied exponentially - from 10,187 to an estimated 96,000 by the end of 2005. There were more than 7,000 new home starts in 2004. That translates to a new home completed almost every hour, on average, and 50 new residents a day.

Even the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers decided to take up residence here. The once-sleepy square mile farming community surprised just about everyone last fall when it successfully courted the two teams away from their Florida training homes, and snagged $32 million in funding from the Maricopa County Tourism and Sports Authority.

The $48.2 million Cactus League Spring Training facility and stadium was completed in 2002, along with a regional library, aquatic center, recreation center, and passive park – the first installments on a square-mile-plus downtown development dubbed Surprise Center. A joint venture with Carefree Partners (a division of Valley shopping center developer Westcor) it will feature government offices, shops, upscale restaurants and entertainment venues.

In fact, about 75 percent of expenditures in Surprise’s $336 million 2005-06 budget are for capital projects. The budget includes a Public Safety Building, two fire stations, a 25-court tennis center, three water reclamation facilities, design of a new city hall and nearly $18 million in roadway improvements. Yet, Surprise property tax rate ranks among the lowest in the state at .9101 per $100 of assessed valuation.

Commercial development is booming, as well. The state’s largest Wal-Mart Supercenter and a sizeable Home Depot opened in 2000 as anchor tenants of Surprise Towne Center, a power retail development. Situated on the northwest corner of major thoroughfares, Grand Avenue and Bell Road, it features more than 40 locally and nationally known stores including PetsMart, Office Max, Famous Footwear, banks, restaurants. Just across the road, Target and Lowe’s Home Improvement Center anchor a sprawling commercial center, Surprise Marketplace, and throughout the 76-square-mile city, churches, gas stations, grocery and drug stores, are cropping up.

The Dysart Unified School District has opened a two kindergarten through eighth grade elementary schools a year for the past three years. A new high school opened in 2003 and another one is expected to open in August of 2006.

Opened in 1996 in Surprise, Rio Salado Community College’s Lifelong Learning Center services about 5,000 students a year with a wide variety of courses including GED preparation, basic to advanced computer programming, special interest, and associate degree programs. Estrella Mountain Community College is now offering courses on the campus of Willow Canyon High School and nearby Del E. Webb Memorial Hospital expanded to include women’s services, labor and delivery, and pediatric neonatal wing.

With projections that Surprise’s population could hit 364,000 by 2020, city leaders are taking a proactive approach to planning. Approved by voters in 2001, the city’s updated general plan encompasses a 310 square-mile planning area and serves as a roadmap to the future.