June - Sunland Springs Village Active 55+ Living

June 2009
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Sunland Springs Village Voice
Ross Farnsworth and the roots
of Sunland Springs Village
By Ed Leahy
It’s been 50
years now since
Joe Farnsworth
and his youngest
child, Ross, started
down a path
that led to the
building of over
10,000 homes,
with 1,000 or so
more in the offing
at SSV, and
four communities
the size of
lots of America’s
small towns. At
the beginning of
their adventure,
however, this
outcome was
anything but assured.
For one thing, for many years Joe Farnsworth was in the car
business. In the 1920’s he sold General Motors products in Mexico
until Mexican political problems caused him to leave. He returned
to Mesa where he opened up a car dealership which he operated
until business was depleted by The Great Depression. Like many
Americans of that time, he had to find another line of work. He
found it as a public health inspector for Maricopa County, a job
that got him around the area, a fact that later proved useful to him
and his son Ross.
As for a young Ross, he also started his adult life on a different
road. He’d been a football player in High School and later played
one year at Arizona State. An LDS mission kept him from playing
longer. Ross ultimately graduated from ASU with a degree in
General Studies and Political Science and then a Masters in Public
Education. For two years, until the pivotal year of 1959, he taught
at Mesa High School.
It was also in the late 50’s that Joe Farnsworth was struck by
the growth beginning to stir in the area. So, by now in his 60’s,
he bought some land and built a few houses. Meanwhile, in the
West Valley a man name Ben Schlipher had an idea for a new kind
of community, a retirement community. He called it Youngtown
and even got some national publicity on the “Today Show” hosted
by Dave Garroway. Intrigued by the possibilities Schlipher created
with Youngstown, Joe and Ross Farnsworth sold some stock,
raising capital to create another community for retirees which
they named Dreamland Villa. They called it Dreamland because
Joe’s wife Annie’s favorite song was “I’ll meet you tonight in
Dreamland.”
Arizona was beginning to develop in 1959, but it was still
mostly farmland and a far cry from where it is today. In fact,
the road leading to Dreamland was a dirt one and some in Mesa
wondered why the Farnsworths were building their development
“way out there.” Then the competition suddenly got tougher.
Del Webb, a much bigger and more famous player, entered the
market and Ross thought their fledgling Farnsworth venture was
finished for sure.
Not one to fold his tent easily, Ross bought some outdoor
advertising on the road to the new Del Webb site urging people to
“See Dreamland before you decide.” The advertising helped and
instead Farnsworth Development was off to the races. But that
advertising wasn’t all that made the Farnsworth venture succeed.
Neither Joe nor Ross were experts in the field -- so they took their
direction from their customers. Unlike Del Webb, Farnsworth was
willing to tailor the houses they built to suit their buyers’ wishes.
In fact, if you had the plans, they’d even build you a custom house.
Del Webb, on the other hand, took the more assembly line, efficiency
first approach and built houses that buyers had to take just
as they were offered. But that wasn’t all. A preferred Farnsworth
building method was block construction. In practical terms over
the long run, block construction is more durable and, with added
insulation, more energy efficient -- a feature important in a climate
that demands keeping a house cool in summer and forward looking
in a now increasingly energy-conscious America. As time moved
on, Farnsworth homes kept adapting to the market and today are
pre-wired for cable and the computer age. But simply building
better houses doesn’t create a community. That takes recreational
facilities.
Once again Farnsworth followed the directives of its customers.
At Dreamland, their buyers were into shuffleboard, swimming
and golf. So Ross Farnsworth provided facilities for them. As time
moved on, buyers expressed a wider range of preferences. Once
again Farnsworth listened and added more facilities. At Sunland
Village homeowners wanted tennis courts included in the mix.
Residents of Sunland Village East wanted all the above and a place
to play softball. Today, here at Sunland Springs Village, we enjoy
a wide range of activities and now a Softball Field considered by
many as the finest in the East Valley. And that’s not all. The SSV
HOA has encouraged a high level of community volunteership, a
full compliment of clubs and homeowner committees topped off by
an Advisory Board of committee chairs that help keep Farnsworth
management focused on the needs of the homeowners.
It’s a long road Ross Farnsworth traveled from 1959 to 2009,
Farnsworth Development’s 50th year in business. By any measure
Joe and Ross’s dreams have been more than realized and that
happened due to the necessary application of a simple principle
-- pay attention to the needs and wants of your customers. That
way, instead of selling houses to passive consumers, you turn many
thousands of buyers into collaborators who help make your project
live and keep your community abreast of the times.