Circle City, AZ

Circle City is a Maricopa County census-designated place 17 miles northwest of Surprise along U.S. Route 60, built in the late 1950s by the Workmen's Circle. The Jewish fraternal and mutual-aid society planned it as a retirement community for members but opened it to people over fifty of all races and religions, unusually early for an integrated development. The name fits the original plan: the settlement was laid out in a large circle. Circle City is an Arizona place with a very specific origin—an aging-members project that became a community.