What used to be one of the ritziest areas in Chandler has since fallen on hard times, but some residents are hoping that becoming Chandler’s first designated historic neighborhood gets the Silk Stocking neighborhood back on track.

Silk Stocking, just north of downtown Chandler and east of Chandler High School, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

“Hopefully, it will entice more people to come to the neighborhood and rehab homes and that sort of thing,” said Silk Stocking resident Mary Lou Perkins. “We just hope it will improve the neighborhood. It needs improving.”

Because Chandler has no historic preservation ordinance, the designation will not place any additional requirements on people who own homes in the neighborhood or those who buy houses there. However, homes in the neighborhood could qualify for tax breaks.

Perkins and longtime Silk Stocking resident Dorothy Ruoff had been pushing to get the neighborhood included on the register for more than 10 years.

The two women met while working with the city to clean up the neighborhood. While they served on the Chandler Redevelopment Commission, they started trying to get the neighborhood included on the historic register.

The homes in the neighborhood were built in the 1920s. At that time, they were selling for $3,000 to $4,000. It was said that someone who could afford to pay that could buy his wife silk stockings.

The neighborhood joins a short list of Chandler entries on the National Register of Historic Places. There are four buildings – Chandler High School, the McCullough-Price House, the San Marcos Hotel and the Suhwaro Hotel – and the downtown business district.

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