Life Begins at 50

In Sun City, Ariz., last week, the clear desert air rang with a mighty chorus of activity. Through its palm-lined streets wafted the strains of Stephen Foster melodies as the cast of the Sun City Minstrel Show rehearsed for its big night. Golfers played on a golf course that meanders through the community, and lawn bowlers practiced body English on the bowling green. The shuffleboard courts were jammed, and so was the community-center swimming pool. Ranged in some 40 different clubs, Sun City residents busily kept their hand in at everything from chess to stone cutting. And--for those who had energy left--there was square dancing in the evening.

Such frenetic activity might seem unusual in an ordinary U.S. town, but Sun City (pop. 3,000) is no ordinary community. It is the most unusual example of a new housing trend--the community built especially for retired people. Unlike most other such communities. Sun City accepts only home owners over 50, bars all children, except as visitors. Sun City residents, most of whom have already raised their own families, do not want the responsibilities that children bring to a community, although jokers claim that the real reason for the ban is that children could not keep up with the pace of the city's residents.

Recreation First. The community itself is a mere infant. In 1956, Phoenix's Del E. Webb, builder and part owner of the New York Yankees, began studying retirement communities. Despite most advice to the contrary, he decided that retired people often feel uncomfortable around younger couples because their interests are so different; furthermore, they do not want children underfoot. They prefer organized activities to keep them busy, want sports facilities to be ready when they move in.

In the summer of 1959, the Webb organization bought 30,000 acres of land about 16 miles northwest of Phoenix, invested more than $2,500,000 in building parks, wide palm-lined streets, a shopping center, community buildings and other facilities. By Jan. 1, 1960, the organization had model homes constructed and was ready to begin selling. The modest, basically similar, concrete-block houses ranged from $8,750 for a two-bedroom structure to $11,600 for a three-bedroom and two-bath house. On the first week end, purchasers bought 272 of the neat and gay pastel houses--and the flow has not stopped since. In 1960 the Webb company sold 1,472 houses and 262 apartments for about $17.5 million--and 60% of the sales were for cash. This year the company is building a second batch of slightly larger houses that sell for from $9,150 to $14,550 and is planning similar developments in California and Florida.

O Pioneers. Sociologists are already knocking on Sun City's doors. A survey of the 448 residents who applied for Federal Housing Administration loans showed that the average Sun City citizen has a net worth of $54,658, a yearly income of $7,878, a bank balance of $7,160-figures that supply an income for the city more solidly than any industry could. Webb figures that a retired person needs only $350 a month income to live in the community and pay for a home.

Despite a wide variety of backgrounds and economic circumstances, Sun City residents have shown strong egalitarian feelings and a desire to forget the past; they think of themselves as pioneers in a new. more or less classless community. No cliques have been formed along lines of former social positions. Even the similarity of their houses (actually 15 different models) is welcomed as a leveler.

"We all live in the same kind of house," says Ralph Hawley, 81, professor emeritus of forestry at Yale and president of the Sun City Civic Association, "and we like it that way."

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