[4][5] It is the spring training home of the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners, who share the Peoria Sports Complex.

Named Grand Avenue, this road angled through the newly designed town sites of Alhambra, Glendale, and Peoria and became the main route from Phoenix to Vulture Mine.

The settlers filed Peoria's plot map with the Maricopa County recorder on May 24, 1897, naming the settlement after their hometown.

The original plot map of Peoria included east and west streets (from south to north) Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, and Van Buren.

[7] On August 4, 1888, the Territory of Peoria was granted a post office in its name and served a population of 27.

Maricopa County supervisors defined the boundaries for School District Eleven, covering 49 square miles (130 km2), and the first class took place in an unoccupied brick store that faced north on Washington Street until Peoria's first school building, a one-room structure completed in 1891.

The three-story Edwards Hotel was built in 1918, followed by the Mabel Hood building in May 1920 at the southwest corner of Washington Street and 83rd Avenue.

A postwar construction boom set the stage for Peoria to become a suburb of Phoenix, providing housing for the capital city as growth moved west.

In 1968, the city passed a bond to issue securing the money to build a sewer system, which was completed in 1969.

The Police Department opened in 1989, the main city hall building and courts in 1991, and the library in 1993.

From the late 1970s to 1990, Peoria's Greenway Sports Complex served as a minor league training facility for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.

It was completed in 1994 and was the first Major League Baseball spring training facility in the county shared by two teams.

[9][10] The San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners utilize the complex year-round for spring training and player development.

Mayor at the time, John Keegan, saw the building as the key to the revitalization of the downtown district of Peoria, as well as a much needed cultural center for the northwest valley.

Peoria's economic plan focuses on establishing the “Desert Empire,” a new corridor of industrial, commercial, and mixed development along the Loop 303, especially under mayor, Jason Beck.

The park offers a variety of recreational activities and amenities including fishing, lighted multi-purpose fields, and picnic ramadas.

[1] The water area is due to Lake Pleasant, a reservoir on the Agua Fria River in the northern part of the city, annexed by Peoria in 1996.

The Agua Fria River is usually dry due to the New Waddell Dam that holds back Lake Pleasant in the northern end of the city.

Located there is the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts, opened in 2006, managed by Theater Works.

[25][26] Peoria has recently redeveloped and marketed the area along 83rd Avenue between Bell Road and Thunderbird Road as an entertainment district dubbed “P83.”[27] Big draws to the area are Peoria Sports Complex, Arizona Broadway Theater, and Harkins Theatres, along with a wide variety of food offerings.

[32][31] The city also hosts other events such as Second Saturday that displays local artists, artisans, vendors, and musicians,[33] and Somos Peoria, a festival that offers visitors to experience the tastes and sounds of traditional Hispanic cultures.

The mayor is elected at-large for a four-year term, which was an amendment to the City Charter approved by voters on March 11, 1997.

PUSD has seven high schools, four of which are actually within the city limits of Peoria (the other three are in the city limits of Glendale) including: PUSD high schools within Peoria: PUSD high schools within Glendale: PUSD elementary schools within the city limits are Alta Loma, Apache, Cheyenne, Copperwood, Cotton Boll, Country Meadows, Coyote Hills, Desert Harbor, Frontier, Ira Murphy, Lake Pleasant, Oakwood, Oasis, Parkridge, Paseo Verde, Peoria, Santa Fe, Sky View, Sunset Heights, Sun Valley, Sundance, Vistancia and Zuni Hills.

Peoria relies largely on the Central Arizona Project and its canal that diverts water from the city's Lake Pleasant.

[47] Arizona is home to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the largest nuclear-generating facility in the United States.