Sun Cities Area Historical Society/Del Webb Sun Cities Museum, Sun City

About Sun Cities Area Historical Society/Del Webb Sun Cities Museum

The Del Webb Sun Cities Museum, housed in a little pink house, tells the story of Sun City and Sun City West through displays, photographs, and vintage pieces that evoke the communities' opening day in 1960. Visitors explore personal interviews, anecdotal trivia, and an extensive photograph collection documenting how Del Webb and his partner Jim Boswell created the nation's first active retirement community. The museum features hundreds of scanned scrapbooks, oral histories available as audio and video transcripts, and rotating exhibits including the Sun City Quilt currently on display. Many visitors arrive expecting to spend 20 minutes or half an hour but remain for two hours, unable to take in all the material. The museum, run entirely by volunteers since opening in 1990, accommodates group tours for clubs, organizations, and businesses. Located in Sun City, Arizona, the museum helps explain why these two senior communities became successful models studied by developers nationwide.