The Heights

Established 1903

In the first decades of the twentieth century, the first generation of Central City millionaires bulldozed the bluffs, redirected the flow of water, laid foundations, and hauled in soil for manicured lawns. By the crash of ’29, multiple quiet, country roads zig-zagged through a high ground that looked nothing like the watershed ignored by homesteaders throughout the previous century. After annexation into the city and the end of the economic depression that gripped the country, the neighborhood’s appeal rose to new heights. By the 1980’s, many of the multi-acre lots were broken up for McMansions, and The Heights obtained a decidedly suburban feel, a series of cul-de-sacs, dead end streets, and cookie cutter constructions that diluted the neighborhood’s affluence, which, like much of the city’s wealth, migrated to the northern suburbs

History of The Heights

1884

The rural communities that stretched around the northwestern corner of Central City, encompassing the area that would become the neighborhoods of Long Beach, The Heights, Waite Park, and The Hill, incorporated as Jefferson Township. 1852-1894: Competing Forms of Civilization - Government, Business, and Industry

1903

Dale Fisk built the first mansion in The Heights. 1894-1950 Development of Standards, Tradition, and Expectation

1932

Central City Annexed Jefferson Township, a municipal government that served the rural areas that would become The Hill, Waite Park, The Heights, and Long Beach. This act created the modern boundary of Central City. 1894-1950 Development of Standards, Tradition, and Expectation

Landmarks

Pheasant Run is a housing district founded in the late eighties, the first development of McMansions, all of which were built under the supervision of a single architect using the same contractor and construction company, a firm partially owned by that architect. The lots were sold under the provision that future homes would be built using the architectural firm’s designs and contractors.

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