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Historic downtown Roy Place office renovated, dedication on 12/16

by on Dec. 16, 2010, under Arts, Life, Politics

Roy Place office then

Roy Place office now

Recognize these photos? It was the location of the former Walgreen’s downtown which closed sometime after 2001, but the facade has now been restored, and the building rented to the University of Arizona as a center for “urban design, planning and policy classes” for graduate students. The College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture will be the new tenant, and Pima County is the lessor/owner. Read more in Arizona Daily star article:

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/college/article_623b03b1-baae-51db-85ba-8043e142cbfd.html.

Or in UA News (click here).

It was the office of local architect Roy Place, who also built the Pioneer Hotel, Roskruge Elementary and Mansfeld Middle Schools, the St. Benedictine Monastery.

The dedication for this building will be on Thursday, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m. with UA President Robert Shelton and Fred DuVal, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents. The dedication ceremony will be on the NW corner of N. Stone and E. Pennington Street at Jacome Plaza, although this Roy Place building is at that same intersection on the SE corner, 44 N. Stone Avenue.

I used to shop in there at Walgreen’s when I worked downtown on Pennington Street at the Domestic Violence Commission (now defunct). But it’s wonderful to see the original facade restored, especially as it was Roy Place’s architect office, which looked out upon the lovely Pima County Courthouse, which he built in 1929. It is perhaps his most famous building in Tucson.

For website of Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts/Courthouse, click here.

Incidentally I have held court (Small Claims) in that historic courthouse building for the Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts, although our courtroom is now in the La Placita Village down south on Church Avenue.

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  • fraser007

    The photo (nice one too) of the courthouse is actually the back side of the courthouse. People forget the the front is the other side toward the City buildings!
    The Walgreens was also one of the Cele Petersons womans dress shops at one time. (1930′s or 40′s)
    When it was a Walgreens it was busy ALL the time. Nothing downtown any more like that.
    Good article.

    • Carolyn Classen

      Thanks Fraser for pointing out that the photo is the back of the Pima County Courthouse.  Still time to get to that 2 p.m. dedication of this lovely building.  And yes, it was busy as Walgreen’s, and I can’t believe there is still no drugstore downtown.

  • Ernie McCray

    Maybe downtown will come alive again, bit by bit. It really vibrated when I was growing up.

    • Carolyn Classen

      Yes, Ernie, there is hope for Downtown, which is slowly coming back to life with new restaurants & renovations like this one.  David Fitzsimmons over at the Az Daily Star characterizes/draws Downtown, usually with a tombstone epitaph as “– too tough to die”.

      • fraser007

        If $230,000,000 dollars can’t give us hope then what the heck can………Oh sorry that money is gone. Heads should roll.

  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Three-Sonorans/144198198931412 Three Sonorans

    Right across from City High School… now I know what that construction was all about. At first I though the image was from the cover of La Calle of the Plaza Hotel

    • Carolyn Classen

      Right David, just west of City High School on Pennington, at the corner of Stone Avenue. When it was Walgreen’s it was an ugly, nondescript building as those lovely windows were covered over.  So this is a huge improvement in the facade, and it was previously an eyesore being across the Main Library and empty/closed.

  • myperspective

    More beautiful restorations like this  is what downtown needs. I’ve always felt a tinge of sadness when seeing such beautiful enduring styles of architectecture giving way to nondescript passing fads.  Unfortanely so much of downtown has suffered the wrecking ball over the years where a sense of place has all but disappeared. So many other downtowns that have been preserved are now thriving tourist attractions.
    Fortunately, more people are becoming aware of the value of historic preservation.
    MAPP (Modern Architecture Preservation Project) is another organization dedicated to creating awareness of the unique architectural gem built between 1945 and 1975. Fortunately we saved the brick bank building on Stone Ave. caticornered from the Main Library now housing Chicano Por La Causa from a similar fate.

  • myperspective

    One Saturday a few years ago we met downtown to carpool to an event in Phoenix. Someone from out of town asked me where he could buy a few items such a chewing gum, etc. The only place I could think of was Walgreen’s which was not open on weekends. Interestingly, within a week or two the downtown store shut its doors for good.

    • Carolyn Classen

      Yes, I too was shocked that the only drugstore downtown would actually close and it seemed that no one tried to stop it or get another similar store downtown.  There’s no grocery store either, but I keep hoping for one someday.

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