In 1891, Dr. Alexander John Chandler, the first veterinary surgeon in Arizona Territory, settled on a ranch south of Mesa, studying irrigation engineering. By 1900, he had acquired 18,000 acres of land, and began drawing up plans for a townsite on what was then known as the Chandler Ranch. 

The townsite office opened on May 16, 1912.  (Soon after celebrating Chandler's Centennial on May 17, 2012, Chandler Museum staff discovered that the city had been celebrating the wrong date. In May 1912, the Chandler Arizonan newspaper had erroneously published the founding day as May 17, and through the years residents had misremembered the correct date, which was Thursday, May 16, 1912.)  

The original townsite was bounded by Galveston Street on the north, Frye Road on the south, Hartford Street on the west, and Hamilton Street on the east. By 1913, a town center had become established, featuring the Hotel San Marcos, which also had the first grass golf course in the state. 

Chandler High School was established in 1914. 

Chandler incorporated on February 16, 1920, after 186 residents petitioned the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to approve incorporation. Town founder A.J. Chandler was chosen as the president of the first town council and the town's first mayor.  

Most of Chandler's economy was sustained during the Great Depression (though the Depression was to blame for the cancellation of a second San Marcos hotel), but the cotton crash a few years later had a much deeper impact on the city's residents. 

Later, the founding of Williams Air Force Base in 1941 led to a small surge in population, but Chandler still only held 3,800 residents by 1950. By 1980, it had grown to 30,000, and it has since paced the Phoenix metropolitan area's high rate of growth, with suburban residential areas swallowing former agricultural plots. Some of this growth was fueled by the establishment of manufacturing plants for communications and computing firms such as Microchip, Motorola and Intel.  

Since the early 1990s, the city of Chandler has experienced exponential growth, ranking among the fastest-growing municipalities in the country. The population had grown to more than 275,000 residents in more than 100,000 homes as of 2020. 

The heart of Chandler remains its revitalized historic downtown, which includes the Chandler City Hall and the Chandler Center for the Arts. 

In 2010, Chandler was named an All-America City by the National Civic League. Chandler was the only Arizona winner for the 61st annual awards.

Chandler is noted for its annual Ostrich Festival. Initially, agriculture was the primary business in Chandler, based on cotton, corn, and alfalfa. During the 1910s, there were ostrich farms in the area, catering to the demand for plumes used in women's hats of the era. This demand ebbed with the increasing popularity of the automobile, but the legacy of the ostrich farms would be commemorated by the Ostrich Festival. 

Misc.

The Chandler Center for the Arts, a 1,500-seat regional performing arts venue and the Vision Gallery, a non-profit fine arts gallery representing over 300 regional artists in the Chandler area are located downtown. 

The Arizona Railway Museum is at Tumbleweed Park. 

A 70,000-square-foot Holocaust and Tolerance Museum has also been slated for construction in Chandler.

There are numerous properties in the town of Chandler which are considered to be historical and have been included either in the National Register of Historic Places or listed as such by the Chandler Historical Society. 

The Historic McCullough-Price House, a 1938 Pueblo Revival-style home, was donated to the city by the Price-Propstra family in 2001. The city renovated and opened it to the public in 2007. On June 12, 2009, the McCullough-Price House was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the official listing of America's historic and cultural resources worthy of preservation. 

It is located southwest of Chandler Fashion Center at 300 S. Chandler Village Dr.isc.

• HoHoKam Park
• Sloan Park
• Mesa Amphitheater

Museums

• I.d.e.a. Museum
• Commemorative Air Force (Arizona Wing Aircraft Museum)
• Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa Arts Center
• Mesa Historical Museum
• Arizona Museum of Natural History

Archeological Sites

• Mesa Grande Ruins
• Park of the Canals

Public Libraries

• Main Library (MN)
• Dobson Ranch Branch (BR)
• Mesa Express Library (MEL)
• Red Mountain Branch (RM)

Water Parks

• Golfland Sunsplash waterpark on U.S. 60

Misc.

• The only highrise in Mesa is the Bank of America near Fiesta Mall
• Organ Stop Pizza, containing the worlds largest Wurlitzer organ
• Bell Bank Park, a 320 acre sports and recreation complex

On May 18, 2016, a national nonprofit parks and recreation advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., announced that Chandler was a 2016 Playful City USA community, marking the tenth consecutive year the city earned the distinction (one of twelve founding U.S. cities to receive the honor for the tenth consecutive year since the program was initiated in 2007).

Chandler was recognized for taking an innovative approach to making play a priority throughout the city with its many recreational amenities, parks and aquatic centers.  

The Chandler Community Services Department serves residents and visitors in a variety of ways by providing recreation, fitness, cultural, artistic and educational opportunities along with classes, programs and special events. 

The Community Services Department, located in Old Downtown Chandler, operates the community center, senior center, dozens of local neighborhood and community parks, two recreation centers and six aquatic centers.  

Chandler's recreational offerings provide residents and visitors of all ages, interests and abilities with the facilities to participate in many sports, activities and special events. 

The Department publishes a quarterly recreation magazine called Break Time that is distributed free at many City facilities and through a free subscription service to residents.  A sampling of programs available through the Community Services Department and its Parks and Recreation Divisions includes: swim lessons; junior tennis clinics and leagues; youth classes and programs; youth sports; after-school teen programs; summer youth sports camps and arts camps; fitness classes; group aerobics and dance classes; nature and sustainable living courses; adult classes, sports leagues and outdoor recreation programs; active adult activities; therapeutic recreation special events and Special Olympics fundraising programs.  

Chandler's regional Tumbleweed Park hosts a variety of events throughout the year, including the annual Ostrich Festival, and the Fourth of July Fireworks Festival. 

Veterans Oasis Park is also the site of the city's highest point, at 1,311 feet.. 

Most of Chandler is served by the Chandler Unified School District. Chandler west of Loop 101 is served by the Kyrene Elementary School District and the Tempe Union High School District. The area east of Loop 101 and north of Warner Road is served by Mesa Public Schools. The San Vincente neighborhood in Chandler is served by Gilbert Public Schools.  

Education alternatives include charter schools, Christian schools, parochial schools, magnet schools, as well as "traditional" academies. The leading charter schools in Chandler are BASIS Schools and Legacy Traditional School.  

The two-year Chandler-Gilbert Community College, serving 13,000 students, is located in the east of the city near the Gilbert border. 

Private educational institutions Western International University and Apollo Group subsidiary University of Phoenix also have locations in Chandler. 

International Baptist College is located in Chandler. 

Arizona State University is located 14 miles from downtown in Tempe. 

Ottawa University offers adult education programs in Chandler

Chandler University opened in 2011.