What the City of Scottsdale counts as Old Town, what is there, the historic buildings, how far it sits from the other places in these guides, and what kind of housing the county's parcel records show inside it.
Old Town is defined by the city's Old Town Scottsdale Character Area Plan. It was first adopted in 1984 as the Downtown Plan, updated in 2009, and the current version was adopted on February 20, 2024. The plan calls Old Town the commercial, cultural, civic and symbolic center of the community. Its boundary map runs roughly from Chaparral Road south to Earll Drive, and from 68th Street east to Miller Road. Read the plan.
Part of the Downtown Core. Not a formally designated historic district, but one of the highest concentrations of individually designated historic buildings in the city.
Lawns, public art, large events and the civic buildings: City Hall, the Civic Center Library, the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale Stadium and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
Fine art galleries, restaurants and shops, the Museum of the West, the Scottsdale Artists' School and the Thursday night ArtWalk.
Walking and bike paths on both banks, crossed by the Marshall Way and Soleri bridges, with retail, restaurants, offices and residences along the water.
The regional mall north of the canal, surrounded by larger offices and multifamily residences.
Shops, restaurants and public art, linked by open space and walkways to the canal.
Residences, hotels, nightclubs, restaurants and bars, with a grocery store and other services on its eastern edge.
A mixed-use district of residences, hotels, restaurants, bars and personal services.
Medical offices and the HonorHealth Osborn Medical Campus.
Mid-century apartments and condos alongside new multifamily housing, with restaurants and services.
The city calls Scottsdale "The West's Most Western Town" and protects the buildings on its Historic Register through its Historic Property Ordinance: exterior changes and demolition go to the Historic Preservation Commission. Owners can still buy, sell, rent and change interiors. These listed buildings sit inside the Old Town boundary, with the construction year both the city and the Scottsdale Historical Society publish.
Distance to the other guides. Straight-line miles from Scottsdale City Hall, 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd., to each address, using the Maricopa County Assessor's address points. Road miles and drive times run longer and change with traffic.
Counted from the Maricopa County Assessor's parcel records inside the city's Old Town boundary, each parcel typed the way the Assessor's own parcel pages type it. A condo parcel is one unit. An apartment parcel can hold a whole building, so its count is buildings, not units.
Condo, townhouse or one of the few houses, the details that matter sit in the parcel record and the association documents. Send me the addresses and I will pull them.
Boundary, plan history and districts: City of Scottsdale, Old Town Scottsdale Character Area Plan (adopted February 20, 2024) and the Downtown Boundary layer of the city's Economic Development GIS service. Historic buildings: City of Scottsdale Historic Preservation Program and its Historic Properties GIS layer; Scottsdale Historical Society, Scottsdale Historical Register. Venues: SMoCA, Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Western Spirit, Scottsdale Historical Society, Scottsdale Gallery Association. Trolley: City of Scottsdale transit system. Distances: Maricopa County Assessor address locator, straight-line from Scottsdale City Hall. Housing stock: Maricopa County Assessor parcel map service (construction year, living space, land size) and parcel pages (parcel type), parcels whose published point falls inside the city's Old Town boundary. All checked 15 October 2026. Hours, prices and routes change, so confirm with each one before you go.