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Peoria, Arizona

Peoria, Arizona
City
Images, from top, left to right: Peoria Sports Complex sign, Peoria Presbyterian Church, Peoria Center for the Performing Arts, Rio Vista Community Park, Old Town Peoria, Pioneer Memorial Statue, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, WestWing neighborhood
Images, from top, left to right: Peoria Sports Complex sign, Peoria Presbyterian Church, Peoria Center for the Performing Arts, Rio Vista Community Park, Old Town Peoria, Pioneer Memorial Statue, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, WestWing neighborhood
Official seal of Peoria, Arizona
Seal
Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona
Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona
Peoria, Arizona is located in the US
Peoria, Arizona
Peoria, Arizona
Location in the United States
Coordinates: 33°34′57″N 112°14′19″W / 33.58250°N 112.23861°W / 33.58250; -112.23861Coordinates: 33°34′57″N 112°14′19″W / 33.58250°N 112.23861°W / 33.58250; -112.23861
Country United States
State Arizona
Counties Maricopa, Yavapai
Government
 • Mayor Cathy Carlat
Area
 • City 178 sq mi (461 km2)
 • Land 174.5 sq mi (451.9 km2)
 • Water 3.5 sq mi (9.0 km2)
Elevation 1,142 ft (348 m)
Population (2010)
 • City 154,065
 • Estimate (2015) 171,237
 • Rank US: 146th
 • Density 865.53/sq mi (334.19/km2)
 • Metro 4,574,531 (US: 12th)
Time zone MST (no DST) (UTC-7)
ZIP codes 85345, 85381, 85382, 85383
85373 (Sun City)
85387 (Morristown)
Area code(s) 623 and 928
FIPS code 04-54050
Website http://www.peoriaaz.gov/

Peoria /piˈɔːriə/ is a city in Maricopa and Yavapai counties in the State of Arizona. Most of the city is located in Maricopa County, while a tiny portion in the north is in Yavapai County. It is a major suburb of Phoenix. According to 2010 Census Bureau releases, the population of the city is 154,065. Peoria is currently the sixth largest city in Arizona for land area, and the ninth largest for population. It was named after Peoria, Illinois. The word "peoria" is a corruption of the Illini word for "prairie fire." It is the spring training home of the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners who share the Peoria Sports Complex. In July 2008, Money magazine listed Peoria in its Top 100 Places to Live.

Peoria sits in the Salt River Valley, and extends into the foothills of the mountains to the north. William John Murphy, who had worked on the Arizona Canal, recruited settlers to begin a community in Arizona, many of them from Peoria, Illinois. Four farming families left Illinois that fall to relocate to what is now Peoria, Arizona. An old desert road connecting Phoenix to the Hassayampa River near present-day Wickenburg was the only major transportation route in the area until 1887, when a new road was laid out. Named Grand Avenue, this road angled through the newly designed town sites of Alhambra, Glendale, and Peoria and became the main route from Phoenix to Vulture Mine. The settlers filed Peoria's plot map with the Maricopa County recorder on May 24, 1897, naming the settlement after their hometown.


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