Chandler, Arizona

Chandler, Arizona
City
City of Chandler
The Chandler City Hall in 2011
Seal
Location in Maricopa County and the U.S. state of Arizona
Chandler, Arizona Location in the contiguous United States
Coordinates: 33°18′N 111°50′W / 33.300°N 111.833°W / 33.300; -111.833Coordinates: 33°18′N 111°50′W / 33.300°N 111.833°W / 33.300; -111.833
Country	United States
State	Arizona
County	Maricopa
Founded	May 17, 1912
Incorporated	1920
Government
• Type	Council-Manager
• Mayor	Jay Tibshraeny (R)
Area
• Total	58.0 sq mi (150.2 km2)
• Land	57.9 sq mi (149.9 km2)
• Water	0.1 sq mi (0.3 km2)
Elevation	1,214 ft (370 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	236,123
• Estimate (2015)	260,828
• Rank	US: 76th
• Density	4,505/sq mi (1,740/km2)
• Demonym	Chandlerite
Time zone	MST (no DST) (UTC-7)
ZIP code	85225, 85224, 85286, 85248, 85249,85247,85246
Area code(s)	480
FIPS code	04-12000
Website	www.chandleraz.gov

Chandler is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is a prominent suburb of the Phoenix, Arizona, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). It is bordered to the north and west by Tempe, to the north by Mesa, to the west by Phoenix, to the south by the Gila River Indian Community, and to the east by Gilbert. As of July 2015, the population was 260,828 according to the United States Census Bureau, According to the city's official website, Chandler's Transportation & Development Department estimated the population, as of May 2016, to be 247,328. It also has satellite locations for many technology companies, including Intel and Orbital ATK.

In 1891, Dr. Alexander John Chandler, the first veterinary surgeon in Arizona Territory, settled on a ranch south of Mesa, studying irrigation engineering. By 1900, he had acquired 18,000 acres (73 km²) of land, and began drawing up plans for a townsite on what was then known as the Chandler Ranch. The townsite office opened on May 17, 1912, the same year that Chandler High School was established. The townsite was bounded by Galveston Street on the north, Frye Road on the south, Hartford Street on the west, & Hamilton Street on the east. By 1913, a town center had become established, featuring the Hotel San Marcos, the first golf resort in the state.

Most of Chandler's economy was successfully sustained during the Great Depression (a second San Marcos hotel was canceled due to the Depression however), but the cotton crash a few years later had a much deeper impact on the city's residents. Later, the founding of Williams Air Force Base in 1941 led to a small surge in population, but Chandler still only held 3,800 people by 1950. By 1980, it had grown to 30,000, and it has since paced the Phoenix metropolitan area's high rate of growth, with vast suburban residential areas swallowing former agricultural plots. Some of this growth was fueled by the establishment of manufacturing plants for communications and computing firms such as Microchip, Motorola and Intel.