Tempe

Arizona, United States
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Share
Share to social media
URL
https://www.britannica.com/place/Tempe
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Also known as: Hayden’s Ferry

Tempe, city, Maricopa county, south-central Arizona, U.S. It lies along the Salt River and is a southern suburb of Phoenix. First settled (1872) by Charles Hayden, father of former Arizona senator Carl Hayden, it was called Hayden’s Ferry until renamed in 1880 for the Vale of Tempe, Greece. It is the site of Arizona State University (1885), whose campus contains the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. After World War II Tempe experienced marked residential and economic growth with light-industrial development. The city’s economic activities, once centred on agriculture (through the Salt River Irrigation Project), now are based on manufacturing, trade, and high-tech industry; most of the city’s farmland was given over to residential and commercial development in the 1990s. Tempe is the home of the spring training camps of the Arizona Cardinals (professional football) and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (professional baseball). Since 1971 Tempe has been the host of the Fiesta Bowl (college football). Inc. town, 1894; city, 1964. Pop. (2010) 161,719; (2020) 180,587.

This article was most recently revised and updated by World Data Editors.