HVTIA in the Early Days
by Leo Morris
When my wife and I moved in to HVTIA in 1971, there were no homes to the north… all the way to Sabino Canyon. Sabino Canyon Road itself was a narrow, two-lane affair. The only commercial entity was a closed German restaurant just north of Snyder Road that later was reopened as the Hidden Valley Inn. (The Hidden Valley Inn, shown here in 1982, on Sabino Canyon Road closed in 2006. It had been rebuilt after a fire in in 1995. In 2006, it was converted into office space.)
Rabbits, coyotes, javalina, Gambrel quail, road runners and deer were regular visitors at HVTIA in those days. There was abundant and rich green grass growing all through out the association. The grass and water sprinklers also attracted horses! Not wild horses, but those that had been abandoned or run away from their owners. It was quite a shock to look out a window and see a horse with his nose pressed against the glass staring at us.
At that time, Sunrise road was over open range which made for an undulating roadway. One night our son ran into a small group of calves and ruined the whole front end of his car. Wes Miller was the builder and developer of this complex. His son, John, lived in two of the units with his second wife and six children. The two units, 8028 and 8034 were connected through an opening in the living room and the kids had on one side and the adults on the other.
There is one final story that is quite interesting. On the west side of our association where the current apartment buildings are, there was a nine-hole, par-three golf course. One summer night after the course was closed a fire started. It spread very quickly and actually became a threat to our property. Metro Fire didn’t have a station close at that time, but they still came to fight the fire.
The problem was that there was a lack of water. Because of how fast the fire was spreading, a helicopter was called to help. It dipped a hug bucket into our pool, and after a few trips the fire was out. It was after that fire that fire hydrants were added in HVTIA.