Early 1900s look is just an old front’s removal away
Warren Michaels (left) restored the 1901 facade of the downtown Hittinger Building, 120 E. Congress St., which he is selling to Melanie Morrison. She is moving her Morrison, Ekre & Bart Management Services into the historic building.
Restoring a 1912 look to downtown Tucson may be the ideal way to celebrate the state’s centennial in 2012 and to establish a “new” identity for the future.
There are already nibbles to reawaken the downtown history that is still firmly in place – but mostly covered up, neglected or downright forgotten.
With all the talk about an arena, museums and rainbow bridges, 90 percent of downtown revitalization could already be in place: the buildings on and near Congress Street and Broadway.
Nearly all date from the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s – not that you’d necessarily know that with the awful mid-century facades that cover many of them.
Check out the Hittinger Building, 120 E. Congress St., next to the Chicago Store.
This building had a drab 1940s look until owner Warren Michaels in 2002 had architect Rob Paulus restore the 1901 neoclassical facade.
Michaels is selling the building to Melanie Morrison, who will occupy it with 30 employees and her Morrison Ekre Bart Management Services, one of Tucson’s top two apartment management firms.
Michaels and Morrison unwittingly are providing the example of how downtown might be revitalized: spruce up a gorgeous building and fill it with people.
Take a walk with Jonathan Mabry, Tucson’s historic preservation officer, and he will tell you he wants to have more buildings restored to their early 20th century looks and occupied by businesses that attract visitors: boutique hotels, restaurants, retail shops.
Sit down and chat with assistant city manager Karen Masbruch and Glenn Lyons, chief executive of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, and you will see they are about to unveil a facade program to add on to what Michaels, Morrison and Mabry are already doing.
Add it up and you could have Tucson’s version of the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District or the Distillery Historic District in Toronto.
Tucson could have the full sense of the century-old downtown Tucson and can convert it into a unique downtown revitalization ploy: A rare Western big city downtown that is almost entirely early 20th century. Indeed, the entire block anchored by the Crescent Smoke Shop, 200 E. Congress, dates from 1900-1921 – the only fully intact historic four-street (four-sided) block.
Independent of the above players, in the two years I’ve reported on downtown, I have observed a collection of empty and forgotten historic buildings that could spark a dynamic, history-oriented district. They could be Buildings of the Future.
These include but are not limited to:
• Marist College
(1916) – The city and Roman Catholic Diocese hope to find someone with $2 million to restore the adobe structure behind St. Augustine Cathedral.
• Reilly Funeral Home (1908) – Closed since 1990, the building at 102 E. Pennington St. was bought last year by developer Steve Fenton, who hasn’t found a tenant for it yet.
• McLellan’s (1948) – The building at 63 E. Congress St., which developer John Wesley Miller owns but wants to sell. A sushi restaurant called On a Roll should open in part of the building in summer.
• Scottish Rite Cathedral (1915) – the Scottish Rite Freemasons own this building but would love to share it with others since the Masons have only four major gatherings there a year.
• Jerry’s Lee Ho Market (1900) and other Meyer Avenue buildings – Haley & Aldrich engineering and consulting company last year bought Jerry’s Lee Ho Market building, 600 S. Meyer Ave., and plans to move 20 employees into it later this year.
• MacArthur Building (1908) – the city owns this triangle-shaped building, 345 E. Toole Ave., and the city is considedring four private sector proposals to buy the building.
• Walgreens (1929) – Empty since Walgreens left in 2003 but the county-owned building at 44 N. Stone Ave. is destined for the market soon.
• Julian-Drew Building (1917, 1939) – Where Business Development Finance Co. had its offices at 186 E. Broadway before leaving last year. “I think the Julian-Drew (building) is just gorgeous and has a lot of potential,” city historic preservation officer Mabry said.
• El Paso and Southwestern Depot (1913) – “I think there’s enormous potential for the El Paso and Southwestern Depot, (419 W. Congress St.)” Mabry said. “I would say that’s a slam dunk next to the new arena.”
• Carnegie Library (1901) – The Tucson Children’s Museum, 200 S. Sixth Ave., has occupied this building since 1990 but intends to move out if a new museum is built as part of Tucson Origins.
• Charles O. Brown House (1876-88)
– Mabry bemoans this house at 40 W. Broadway serves as offices for El Centro Cultural de las Americas and other businesses rather than its popular historic go-to use as the Old Adobe Club.
Tucson could play off the trend many other cities have followed in converting derelict buildings, often abandoned industrial or warehouse structures.
“It definitely started in Soho in the 1970s, after London in the 1960s,” said architect Paulus, who lives the Soho trend while working in the Hittinger building.
He and wife Randi Dorman converted a 1920s ice storage factory into the Ice House Lofts between 2002 and 2005. They live in one of the 51 units there.
Michaels didn’t realize the historic potential of the Hittinger Building when he sought to buy it. But when he inspected the building, he saw three arched windows that were covered up.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” Michaels said.
Michaels brought in Paulus to remove the 1940s plastered facade and fix up the 1901 face.
“Fortunately, it was in pretty good shape,” Paulus said. “We were able to sandblast the original columns of steel. It was rather inexpensive. A lot of it is just determination.”
Brick blocks were scrubbed and holes filled where the 1940s facade was bolted onto the original wall.
Michaels said the restoration cost $125,000, with $50,000 coming from him and $75,000 from a city Back to Basics grant.
“I think it honors Tucson’s historic past and also brings the building into the new century with a modern storefront,” Michaels said.
Do facades make a difference in making downtown more popular?
“I think it’s obvious,” Michaels said. “If the facades along Congress are improved, it will attract more people downtown.”
Michaels sold the building to Morrison’s group for about $1 million because he wants to retire. The sale is expected to close in June and Morrison’s MEB firm plans to move 30 employees into the Hittinger Building in September.
“What we didn’t want was a typical run-of-the-mill office building,” Morrison said. “We want to be in a dynamic, creative atmosphere.”
The apartment management firm has outgrown the 1920s adobe house it now occupies at 1039 N. Sixth Ave., the company’s third address in its first 10 years in business.
“This will be our last move, I’m pretty sure,” Morrison said.
Mabry, the city’s historic preservation officer, loves the restoration of the Hittinger Building but is less in love with the idea of its office use.
Attorneys’ offices dominate in many Victorian homes on the north side of downtown. And there’s a string of historic hotels on downtown’s south side that have little public access.
“I wish they weren’t all office buildings,” Mabry said. “Tucson has all these beautiful, historic hotels that have been rehabilitated as low-income housing or offices and nobody can go in. These could all be boutique hotels or restaurants or retail shops. We’re not making the best use of our historic houses.”
City hopes to spur building owners to upgrade facades
Downtown is taking on an old look with streetcar tracks and subtle nudges to restore the early 20th century building facades that have been covered for decades.
While streetcar tracks are being installed around the Rialto Block, the city is making available $530,000 to restore the ornate 1890s to 1920s look of buildings hidden under less-inspired 1940s and 1950s facades along Congress Street, Broadway and Pennington Street between Toole and Church avenues.
“The location is based on the streetcar alignment,” Tucson Assistant City Manager Karen Masbruch said.
The money comes from a dormant 1982 urban improvement project fund. This fund offered financial assistance via revolving loans to businesses within a 1980s downtown incentive zone, Masbruch’s assistant, Fran LaSala, said.
The new facade improvement program will partially subsidize five or six facade improvements with the goals of a) stirring other property owners to upgrade their facades and b) finding more money to fund more facade improvements, said Glenn Lyons, chief executive of the Downtown Tucson Partnership.
“My hope is we get this oversubscribed,” Lyons said. “Then we chase for money for Phase 2.”
A building owner would 50-50 match the interest-free forgivable loan from the city. The city is offering up to $125,000 for corner buildings and $90,000 for mid-block buildings with the condition that facade improvements must be kept in place for 10 years, Masbruch said.
The partnership is collaborating with the city manager’s office to find interested property owners and select the best proposals to fix up street-facing walls in pre-1948 buildings.
The private-sector partnership will do the legwork, with final project approval given by the city council, Masbruch said.
This is part of City Manager Mike Hein’s mission to assign certain development projects to the private sector. This engenders public-private collaboration to revitalize downtown with the understanding that in some cases the private sector can achieve better results than government agencies.
A letter announcing the facade improvement program was sent last week to all property owners on the designated stretches of Congress, Broadway and Pennington. Lyons will meet with the owners June 15, and there is a July 22 deadline to turn applications.
The city has architects lined up to help property owners prepare facade proposals. The city will offer up to $7,500 to owners to prepare their plans, Masbruch said.
“We want to achieve an active, pedestrian-friendly downtown,” Masbruch said. “This is an opportunity to start small.”
The facade program ties in with the Congress-Broadway infrastructure project that will upgrade underground utilities and get them out of the way of the streetcar tracks.
A restored early 20th century downtown ties in with the eclectic Fourth Avenue area and the future Tucson Origins – all destined to be linked by the streetcar.
“It all connects and makes sense,” Masbruch said.
Teya Vitu is the downtown reporter for the Tucson Citizen.
Before: History disappeared under this 1940s facade on the Hittinger Building, 120 E. Congress St. After: Architect Rob Paulus and building owner Warren Michaels restored the original 1901 facade of the Hittinger Building in 2002.
The vacant El Paso & Southwestern Depot (1913) has great future potential if the proposed convention center hotel and arena are built.
The Crescent Smoke Shop building, 200 E. Congress, dates from 1900. It is believed that the original facade (left) still exists under the modern covering (right). Many downtown buildings have hidden original facades that could be revealed through the city's facade improvement program.
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DOWNTOWN MAP
See a pdf map of downtown’s historic buildings
Downtown Tucson, 1920
A small taste of downtown 1920, drawn from the advertisements in the Oct. 26, 1920, edition of the Tucson Citizen. This issue was recently found in the Royal Elizabeth Bed & Breakfast Inn by owners Jeff DiGregorio and Chuck Bressi.
• Tucson Seed & Floral, 100 E. Congress St.
• Southwestern Sash & Door, 210 Stevens Ave.
• Ryland & Zipf (a men’s clothier), 48 E. Congress
• Hartley Cleaning Works, 106 E. Broadway
• Harry A. Drachman Shoe Co., 118 E. Congress
• S.P. Grocery, 234 E. Congress
• Buehman (photography), 15-17 E. Congress
• Levy’s in the Congress Hotel Building, Fifth and Congress
• American Cleaning Works, 12 W. Congress
One headline reads: “Gas Drops Two Cents per gallon,” down to 37 cents, a price that was still common in the early 1970s, though the price was as low as 19 cents per gallon for many years between the 1920s and 1970s.
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Cashing in on history
Fort Worth Stockyards
Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego
Distillery Historic District in Toronto
Pearl District in Portland, Ore.
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Sidewalk history still in place
These original entryway sidewalk tablets can still be seen:
• Nathaniel Shirt Shops Coast to Coast, 98 E. Congress (today’s Wig O Rama)
• McLellan’s, 63 E. Congress, has three tablets still in place
• Franklin’s, 23 E. Congress
• Daniel’s Jewelers, 21 E. Congress (Pima County Assessor’s office)
• Kelly’s, 51 N. Sixth Ave. (part of ArtFare The Muse)
• Dave Bloom & Sons, 145 E. Congress (Hydra Leather & More)
• Angels from Heaven, 115 E. Broadway (Creative Slice Internet)
• Betty Gay, 127 E. Congress (Screening Room)
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