Imagine pulling up to your red brick, ranch-style home and parking in the carport as the kids splash around in the irrigated lawn. The nearest neighbors live several yards away, and you actually know them.

Today’s reality bites, but back in the day, the post-World War II housing boom brought loads of new residents to the Phoenix-metro area. It was a simpler time, and as life becomes more complex, these iconic homes still hold their value.

Now Realtors will have another feature to list: historic status.

Starting this year, homes and neighborhoods from the end of the 1950s are eligible for the state and national Register of Historic Places. Historians have submitted gobs of paperwork detailing the lineage of potential sites to state preservation officials, who will consider crowning various sites Valleywide as “historic” in March.

Two shining examples from Glendale are the Northfield neighborhood and Thunderbird Estates. The former features about 15 homes near 59th Avenue and Orangewood, while the latter features up to 48 homes near 59th and Northern avenues.

Thunderbird Estates, however, may have one dubious distinction on its résumé – though preservation officials probably won’t see it. Historians believe one of its residents was the late Evan Mecham, the millionaire Glendale car dealer who became governor, rescinded the state’s first Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, faced charges of fraud and perjury, and was ultimately impeached by the Arizona House of Representatives.