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If we’re the United States of Aurora, Murphy Creek would qualify as Alaska.
Not only because of the sheer size of the neighborhood (the city-defined area seems to stretch east from South Gun Club Road to the Kansas border) but also because it seems fairly well disconnected from the rest of Aurora.
That won’t last for long. As the city’s population swells in the next decade, developers seeking the holy trinity of real estate: cheap land, lots of water and cheap land, will inevitably breach the frontiers that surround Murphy Creek.
Anchored by a golf course bearing the same name, neighbors here homesteaded this part of Aurora for the same reason Cornelius E. Murphy came here in the 1800s: It’s pretty quiet and has plenty of room to grow.
The neighborhood is fairly new—the golf course was constructed in the late 1990s—and so are the schools, which Aurora Public Schools opened only a handful of years ago. Homes are new, too, with construction beginning again after the area was mired by the housing crunch a few years ago.
There’s the sense that the neighborhood will inevitably become the center of where Aurora will likely grow: east and north. Like the Mission Viejo and Village East neighborhoods before it—once built on the edges of Aurora with an unfettered view of Kansas—Murphy Creek may provide the blueprint for suburban Aurora for years to come.
They’ve got a pretty decent start already. The community garden, which has 27 plots, is full. Neighbors pull out blankets to sit in Homestead Park to watch movies on the lawn. The neighborhood restaurant serves prime rib and cocktails. It’s pretty hard to get a tee time, too.
But if there’s a gripe out here, it’s that grocery stores are hard to come by, with nothing aside from a convenience store within an eight- mile radius. It’s understandable, considering the distance from continental Aurora. It’s probably hard to get food in Alaska, too.
Interesting facts
Crime? None of that nonsense in Murphy Creek. With Buckley Air Force Base nearby, residents in the Murphy Creek neighborhood say they feel protected from hoodlums and villains at all times.
Homeowners are lobbying for improved bike paths. They’re confident that cyclists will be able to cruise comfortably through the neighborhood within the next couple of years.
Riders on horseback aren’t precluded from strolling through the neighborhood. Residents sometimes hear the clickety-click of a horse’s hooves just outside their front door.
If you drive by too quickly, you’ll miss it—Aurora Fire Station No. 15 is located inside a corner house that blends in with all the rest.
Sunflowers, sugar peas, leeks, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, watermelon and okra are grown at the Murphy Creek Community Garden, reserved solely for Murphy Creek residents.
