Editing Peoria, Arizona (section)

===Initial settlement===
Peoria sits in the [[Salt River (Arizona)|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. Albert J. and Elizabeth Straw were the first to establish residency in November 1886. They were followed by William T. and Sylvia Hanna, James M. and Clara Copes, and James and Ella McMillan, all from Peoria, Illinois.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/peoria/2014/06/16/peoria-grows-water-delivered-canal/10615591/|title=Peoria grows with water delivered by canal|website=azcentral}}</ref> An old desert road connecting Phoenix to the [[Hassayampa River]] near present-day [[Wickenburg, Arizona|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, Arizona|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.

The original plot map of Peoria included east and west streets (from south to north) Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, and Van Buren. Streets going north and south were (from west to east) Almond (present-day 85th Avenue), Peach (present-day 84th Avenue), Orange (present-day 83rd Avenue), Vine (present-day 82nd Avenue), and Walnut (present-day 81st Avenue). The plot was roughly from present-day Peoria and 85th avenues to Monroe Street and 85th Avenue to Monroe Street and 81st Avenue to 81st Avenue and south of the Desert Cove alignment.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.peoriaaz.gov/uploadedFiles/Peoriaaz/Departments/Community_Development/Planning_and_Zoning/Historic_Preservation/2012HPMasterPlanFINAL.pdf |title=City of Peoria 2012 Historic Preservation Master Plan  |access-date=September 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124065754/https://www.peoriaaz.gov/uploadedFiles/Peoriaaz/Departments/Community_Development/Planning_and_Zoning/Historic_Preservation/2012HPMasterPlanFINAL.pdf |archive-date=January 24, 2016 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> On August 4, 1888, the Territory of Peoria was granted a post office in its name and served a population of 27. Maricopa County supervisors defined the boundaries for School District Eleven, covering {{convert|49|sqmi}}, and the first class took place in an unoccupied brick store that faced north on Washington Street until Peoria's first school building, a one-room structure completed in 1891.