By the 1950s Tolleson was known as the “Vegetable Center of the World,” and today it’s an employment center for the West Valley. This map of Tolleson prints Downtown Tolleson, Arizona Desert Elementary School, the Tolleson Civic Center, McNeel Park and the Roosevelt Canal, along with the Tolleson Union and University High School Campus and the Tolleson Parks and Recreation Center and Boys & Girls Club.
Tolleson is a city in Maricopa County, on the western side of the Phoenix metropolitan area.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 and gave modern data the look of a vintage atlas. The shaded relief of the landscape comes from United States Geological Survey elevation data, and the streets were drawn from Census Bureau files. The city lies just south of Interstate 10, with Avondale about 6 miles to the southwest and the Agua Fria River about 4 miles to the west, and the 2020 census counted 7,216 people in its 5.7 square miles.
Walter and Alethea Tolleson
The city carries the names of its founders, Walter G. Tolleson and his wife, Alethea H. Tolleson, who came to the area in 1910 and bought a 160-acre ranch where 91st Avenue meets Van Buren Street. Walter reopened the Ten Mile Store, which the city’s page describes as the first stagecoach stop and general store on the way from Phoenix to Yuma; it stood at what’s now 91st Drive and Monroe Street. In 1912 the Tollesons divided up their ranch so more people could buy land. To show farmers what a good opportunity it was, Walter chartered a train, served free lunches to anyone who made the trip and handed out five dollars’ worth of gold, and eighty lots sold at $50 apiece. Walter’s brother Leon became the first postmaster in 1913. The mail ran out of Walter’s store for a time, until a post office was built at 91st Avenue and Van Buren Street, where it still stands. Tolleson incorporated in 1929.
Farming around the town took off in the 1940s, and by the 1950s Tolleson had earned its vegetable nickname. In the early 1960s farm business fell off quickly as more machinery came to the area’s farms and fewer hands were needed. In the 1970s city planners drew up a master plan, began beautifying the streets, encouraged new housing and built a sewage treatment plant, hoping to bring in new businesses and homebuyers. In the late 1970s, as cities raced to annex land along the coming Interstate 10, Tolleson grew from one square mile to six, though its bigger neighbors could outbuy it; Phoenix even bought two narrow strips of land between Tolleson and Avondale so the city would stay within its space. The 1980s brought Fry’s Food and Drug and Albertson’s distribution centers, and they showed other businesses how well placed Tolleson was for moving goods, close to Phoenix and to California. With Interstate 10, the Union Pacific Railroad and State Route 85 at hand, Tolleson now hosts more than twenty Fortune 500 companies and employs more than 20,000 people, giving it one of the highest ratios of jobs to residents in the nation.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
Names on this map
These names are printed on this map.
Streets and roads: Frontage Rd, W Baden St, W Garfield St, W McDowell Rd, W Alzora Way, Christina Way, W Lillian Ln, W McKinley St, W Roosevelt St, W Lynwood St, N 83rd Ave, W Taylor Pl.
More street names, A to Z
83rd Ave, Buckeye Rd, S 91st Ave, W Harrison St, W Jackson St, W Jefferson St, W Monroe St, W Polk St, W Sherman St, W Washington St.
Tolleson High and its graduates
Tolleson Union High School was founded in 1927 and is the oldest of the six schools in the Tolleson Union High School District, and the only high school inside the city limits. In 2006 the district started University High School within it, a college preparatory program that students apply to join; its first graduating class, in 2010, earned about 3 million dollars in scholarships. Merle Keagle, a native of Tolleson, graduated in 1941 and went on to play center field in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1944 to 1948, an All-Star and a fan favorite with the Chicks; she’s part of the league’s permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Bob Stump graduated in 1947 after Navy service in World War II, farmed cotton and grain in Tolleson for many years and served in Congress from 1977 to 2003, chairing both the House Veterans’ Affairs and Armed Services committees; he usually came home on weekends to work his farm. Pole vaulter Nick Hysong, another graduate, won the Olympic gold medal in 2000. Anna Tovar, who was raised in Tolleson and taught kindergarten and first grade, has served her hometown on the city council and as vice mayor and mayor, and the state as a legislator and a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Around the map
The Tolleson Elementary School District runs four schools, one of them named Arizona Desert, and the Littleton, Union and Fowler elementary districts also serve the city. Arizona Desert Elementary School, Downtown Tolleson, the Tolleson Civic Center and McNeel Park have their places on the sheet, as do the Tolleson Union and University High School Campus, the Tolleson Parks and Recreation Center and Boys & Girls Club, and the Roosevelt Canal.
This Tolleson map makes a good addition to an office, library or den, and it can help teach children the geography and history of the area. It’s made for anyone who calls Tolleson home, from 91st Avenue and Van Buren Street to Interstate 10, and KNOWOL created it in 2026 to show the city as it looks today. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the Tolleson map.
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