Your own private lookout on Phoenix’s landmark mountain
Camelback Mountain holds an elevated place (pun intended) in the cultural and natural landscape of Phoenix. Tourists and locals alike revere the high point in Arizona’s capital that’s as recognizable as the Hollywood Sign.
To Native Americans who inhabited the area in prehistoric times, the mountain was a holy place. To developers, from the post-World War II housing boom to the present, it was—and remains—a place to build luxury residences and resorts.
Camelback’s recognizable shape (huge rock slabs resembling the head and back of a kneeling camel) has become the signature backdrop for a city that continues to pulse and expand. Thousands of people come each year to tackle the tough hike or climb up the 2,700-foot peak. Others prefer a less strenuous approach, gazing up at the mountain from its base while quaffing cocktails at resorts like The Phoenician in Scottsdale and Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley.
Camelback’s red-rock link to the ages reminds all of the desert’s power to dazzle. For homes nestled into the mountain, the glitter of city lights in the distance reminds residents they breathe rarefied air. But oh, the views.
Midcentury aesthetics meet Southwestern textures in this quintessentially 1970s cliffside home. (RETSY)
The residence for sale at 5500 N. Dromedary Road possesses 180-degree south-facing panoramas of the greater Phoenix region. “It’s all about the views,” says listing agent Rebecca Clayton-Hoyt of RETSY. “People come up here and just say ‘wow.’ ”
The property was one of the first cliffside homes to be built on Camelback Mountain. Rarer still, it comes with almost 24 acres of undeveloped land. The small-footprint of one bedroom and two bathrooms in 4,641 square feet was built in the 1970s, architect unknown. A stand-alone guesthouse and swimming pool also inhabit the property, which has been in the hands of the original owners since the home was built.
Views drove the design of the home too. In the 1950s, an architect named Al Beadle pioneered a style known as Arizona Modernism or Desert Modernism, favoring flat roofs, steel frames and, of course, floor-to-ceiling glass windows. There’s a Space Age feel to some of his designs, nicknamed “Beadle Boxes.” Many of his original buildings still stand.
The designs reflected the influences of architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies Van Der Rohe and Richard Neutra, who liked placing the box in dramatic landscapes in the West, such as Southern California’s hills and cliffs, and current-day Scottsdale, the site of Wright’s famed winter home, Taliesen West.
Since the 1950s, the area population grew to 4.7 million people, and architects and designers have had fun with variations on the box, fitting contemporary takes on the midcentury masters into cliffy terrains. Hence the Dromedary Road property’s glass-box front with the big views. From certain angles, the house and its location have a touch of the same romantic feel as the notable Stahl House, built by Pierre Koenig in the Hollywood Hills.
Dramatic cliffs frame the property, resulting in an entirely untouched vista. (RETSY)
Some of the quirkier features of the home with a massive rock face in its backyard? An eye-level view of rock from the kitchen, plus natural stone walls incorporated into one of the bathrooms. The home also has a sophisticated drainage system, for its time, that diverts water runoff.
The home’s next owners could maintain this midcentury gem as-is, create an updated version of the house, sell off some of the land or reconfigure the existing parcels to build a legacy compound. What could that look like?
Architect Mark Candelaria has created a floor plan and site plan for a multi-level home that could fit nicely into the cliff. Known for creating contemporary and functional luxury homes in and around Phoenix, Candelaria has imagined a series of tiered boxes at different levels—a plan that enriches the site while honoring the original footprint. The redesign includes a swimming pool and multiple decks for more places to take advantage of views.
The house claims one more distinction. It’s known as the “Merry Christmas House.” The owners put up a large sign every December that can be seen from just about everywhere in the Phoenix area, and 2024 was no exception.
“They’ve been doing this for decades,” Clayton-Hoyt says. “I live in the area and don’t ever remember not seeing it.”
5500 N. Dromedary Road is on the market for $30,000,000.
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