Old Town Scottsdale
— — the desert town that kept its sidewalks shaded.
Not only on a wall.
“A few square blocks of low storefronts and covered sidewalks at the foot of Camelback Mountain. Old Town Scottsdale was the original townsite, founded in 1888 and reshaped in the 1950s into the Western-themed shopping district it still wears. Galleries open late on Thursdays, the Civic Center fountains run year round, and the saguaros in the planters were here before the storefronts. — from the studio
Old Town Scottsdale, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Old Town Scottsdale is the original townsite of Scottsdale, Arizona, a city of roughly 240,000 in the Sonoran Desert just east of Phoenix at about 1,247 feet of elevation. The community was founded in 1888 by U.S. Army Chaplain Winfield Scott and incorporated as a city in 1951. The historic core, bounded loosely by Indian School Road, Scottsdale Road, Brown Avenue, and 2nd Street, was redeveloped in the 1950s with covered sidewalks and a deliberate Western look that the city has maintained since. Camelback Mountain rises four miles northwest.
The Scottsdale Arts District concentrates more than one hundred galleries within walking distance of Old Town, and the weekly Scottsdale ArtWalk runs Thursday evenings, roughly 7 to 9 p.m., as it has continuously since 1975. Scottsdale Civic Center anchors the southern edge, with the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the public library, and a series of public fountains and lawns. Parking is free in city garages within Old Town. Summer afternoons routinely exceed 100°F; the covered sidewalks are functional, not decorative.
Scottsdale's calendar peaks twice. Late January through March brings the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction, the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, and spring training across the Cactus League; lodging fills, the streets are loud, and Old Town runs at full pace. June through August empties out as temperatures climb past 110°F and shops keep shorter hours. The Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, opened 2015, holds the year-round anchor for the district's Western and Native American art programming.