Until the 1960s when air conditioning became readily available in Tucson homes which led to growth exploding in MidTown, the Armory Park Historic District was one of the good places to live, unlike the old barrios which were regarded back then as “Mexican slums”. (How things have changed!!)
In its very early stages Armory Park was simply a neighborhood created to supply small apartment-style housing and services–even a bordello–for men working on the Southern Pacific railroad which had rolled into Tucson in 1880. Some of these buildings remain. What came next were fired brick family homes with steep pitched roofs and Victorian architectural details most of which were built between 1890 and 1920. But, as I found out yesterday, the changes to this historic old neighborhood, keep coming.
The old becomes new again
You can see family homes with steep pitched roofs — in contrast to the flat roofs of adobes–on every street in Armory Park. The pastel painted Victorian cottages could be in San Francisco as easily as Tucson. I assume the steep roofs were to help keep these homes cool by giving hot air a place to rise. (Of course, now they all have a/c.)
A home on Scot Avenue, Schneider-Healy house, built in 1901 is still a private residence. While it doesn’t have a steeply pitched roof, it has a built-in vacuum system–original to the house–but to me those columns look completely out of scale.
Homes become businesses
Family homes were not the only structures being built. In 1908 a new hotel called the Glenwood came into being on Scott Avenue. Over the decades like the neighborhood, it has had it’s ups and downs. I thought it might be a Bed and Breakfast and stepped up on the porch/entry when suddenly a man appeared in the doorway who told me about it being converted to six high end condos. I back down the steps and crossed the street to take photos. I particularly like the “swan” balanced on the right second floor balcony.
Then, around the corner two homes were being painted a brilliant yellow and blue. What is this? The Painter filled me in. He is painting the two homes, now owned by a law firm, in the school colors for the University of Michigan: blue and maize. One law partner is a U of Michigan fan, obviously. (Sorry, the dark blue looks almost black in these photos.)
In contrast, a nearby quiet apartment complex painted a subdued brown and white with a tree-shaded courtyard had an earlier life as a bordello, as one of the neighbors explained to me.
And while on the topic of color, about 3 blocks away another homeowner made the wild choice of purple as the dominant color for his/her Victorian cottage home. I’m sure the original homeowners back in the early 1900s would go into shock seeing this.
And this brings us to the finale. According to the owner, it is an apartment complex, below, built originally for men who worked shifts on and then off the railroad. The one bedroom apartments are small and I noticed a For Rent sign out front this time. I have written about this place before. It embodies the old hippie aesthetic from one end to the other! It’s located at 12th Street and 3rd Avenue and it is fascinating.
Oh, no. I almost forgot. The official theater of the State of Arizona is in Armory Park, too. It looks shockingly like the official California State Theater, also known as the Pasadena Playhouse, in Pasadena, California. And the Tucson Center for the Performing Arts is closed and encircled by a temporary fence. No photos of these. This post is long enough now.
Today I wrote a post on my substack, ‘Plan to Live Forever,’ about something that happened
at the Rillito Farmers Market a while ago. Take a look at it now.
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