Eight Avondale places worth a second look

Plenty of Avondale residents know the city by its freeway exits and shopping centers. Slow down, though, and the older story shows through: a farmworkers' cemetery that just joined the National Register of Historic Places, a park that began as a highway rest stop, plazas named for the people who built the town, and art that remembers the cotton fields. Here are eight places worth a second look, most of them free and outdoors.

1. Goodyear Farms Historic Cemetery

On North Santa Fe Trail, this small cemetery holds the graves of Mexican farmworkers and their families who came to work the Goodyear Farms cotton fields, many of them lost in the 1918 flu pandemic. The city cares for it, and it still serves eligible Goodyear Farms workers and their families, as well as hosting an annual Día de los Muertos celebration. In October 2026 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, only the second Avondale site to earn that listing after Monument Hill in 2002. Look for Algodon Arch at the entrance and the mural Memoria Entre Las Flores. The cemetery is open daily; visit quietly, as it is an active burial ground.

2. Western Avenue in Old Town

Avondale started as Coldwater, a stage stop Billy Moore set up near the Agua Fria crossing in the 1880s, and Western Avenue is still the heart of Old Town. Walk it slowly. Doc Rhodes Plaza, with its gazebo at 10 W. Western, sits on what was once a gas station. At 16 E. Western, Martin Moreno's mural To the Avondale Community shares an address with the NASCAR Championship Mural, and James Moore's Leap of Faith is at 104 W. Western. Further east, A.B. Sernas Plaza beside the Sam Garcia Library honors a former councilmember and his wife Francisca, who both worked as field laborers in Goodyear Farms' Camps 50 and 52; Kevin Caron's sculpture Hands On is close by at the library.

3. The new Old Town Plaza

At the southwest corner of Dysart Road and Western Avenue, the city is building a new Old Town Plaza with illuminated artwork, interpretive panels on Avondale's history and local artists, shade trees and walkways. Construction was scheduled to run into December 2026, and once open, it will hold a time capsule from Avondale's 80th anniversary year, set to stay sealed until the city turns 100 in 2046.

4. Dessie Lorenz Park

This small park on East Main Street has shaded benches and walking paths, and a back story to go with them. It began as a rest area on old U.S. 80, the highway that once ran through Avondale. In 1975, Mayor Dessie Lorenz persuaded the state to lease the land to the city as a park, and the council named it for her.

5. The Civic Center campus and its gallery

The Civic Center Art Gallery opened in March 2026 inside the Civic Center Library, with rotating exhibitions of local and regional artists organized by the city's Municipal Art Committee and the West Valley Arts Council. It is free during library hours. Outside, look for the Family at Play sculpture and the First Responders Tribute in the City Hall lobby, then stop at the Visitor Center for its Rain Curtain artwork and a shelf of Avondale gifts and postcards.

6. Crystal Gardens Wetland Trails

These 8.75 miles of level trail wind around 14 lakes in a 72-acre wetland, and they do a job most walkers never notice. Water from the Salt River Project canal flows through three systems of lakes before being piped underground to a groundwater recharge facility along the Agua Fria River. Bring binoculars: the city points to bird watching as a highlight. The trails are open from sunrise to sunset and free.

7. Friendship Park's Japanese garden

Friendship Park on McDowell Road is best known for ballfields, but it also has a Japanese garden by its fishing pond. Edward Buonvecchio's Japanese Garden Mural decorates the gazebo there, and a sculpture called The Family stands near the soccer fields.

8. Phoenix Raceway

The one ticketed stop on this list is in Avondale too. Set against the Estrella Mountains, Phoenix Raceway hosts two NASCAR race weekends a year, and its calendar runs well beyond them, with food festivals, charity track laps and the NASCAR Racing Experience, which lets fans drive or ride along in a real race car. Check the raceway's event page for what's on.

A bonus drive, and a place to sit down

This month, take Dysart Road between McDowell Road and Van Buren Street. The Hometown Hero banners there honor Avondale's service members and are refreshed every year in time for Veterans Day.

Pair an Old Town walk with breakfast at Coldwater Coffeehouse & Bakery on East Western Avenue, a member-owned café that shares the town's original name. Farther down the avenue, The Pasta Factory is a family-owned Italian restaurant run by a father and his four daughters. New Penny Cafe, on North 114th Avenue near The BLVD, sells work by about 15 local makers alongside its coffee.