There are 28 homes in Deza Estates, but the original subdivision filing from the developer Henry Art Swanson, included plots for 166 homes. Our home was the last built in 1957. We are unsure why the project was never completed, though there are rumors that Swanson ran out of money and left town. There are also rumors that he squatted in our home for some time after it was built before he left. We are still trying to figure out who the architect or architects were and why Swanson abandoned his dream of a building a planned community that, in addition to homes, included schools, shopping, swimming pools, and riding stables.
What I love is that the few homeowners who settled here, made some of those things happen for themselves. For example, Tom Rapp, for which our street is named, built a pool. He had a flag system to communicate to the neighbors when the pool was open. After swim lessons were over, he would send up a green flag letting everyone know that the pool was open to all the kids in the neighborhood. A yellow flag meant that it was adults only and a red flag meant the Rapp family only.
Many of them also had horses, even though the neighborhood riding stables never panned out.