Historic Gem For Sale

 

One of Armory Park's historic gems has been on the market for a while now. The McGinty-Laos house at the corner of 4th Avenue and 17th Street was featured in the Armory Park 74ff study which led to creation of our Historic Preservation Zone. It is a late 1800s bungalow with a large family room addition at the rear. It is set on one of the few full-depth lots spanning from 4th Avenue to Railroad Avenue. The main house has two bedrooms and there is another in a structure at the rear of the lot. You can see marketing details on Zillow at https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/647-S-4th-Ave-Tucson-AZ-85701/8484203_zpid/.

History for the rich only?

Some things seem never to change. This 1977 article addresses some of the issues we still talk about today, gentrification, affordable housing, preserving historic structures, crime and more. I'll continue after the newspaper article. . .

Tucson's Living History

 

There is a wealth of history in the archives of Tucson's two main newspapers. The Citizen is now gone but its archives are kept by the Arizona Daily Star and are available from Newspapers.com by subscription. 

A previous post talked about Connie Weinzapfel as a railroad man who lived in Armory Park. This clipping outlines his historic interest and service to historic preservation in Armory Park. 

Constant Weinzapfel - Armory Park's Locomotive Engineer

The Southern Pacific Railroad and railroad people built early Armory Park. I've been searching for history of the company and people who gave our neighborhood its start. 

The following paragraphs were extracted from a 2001 article in the Tucson Weekly. The subjects were Connie Weinzapfel and engine #1673, now located at the downtown train depot. If you want to read the entire article, click here: The Engine and the Engineer.

Connie Weinzapfel was born into a railroad family. His father, Michael Charles, or M.C., worked for the Illinois Central railroad company for seven years before moving west in 1911 for his wife's health. Over the next 39 years he would be both a fireman and engineer for Southern Pacific.

Site Ready?

The Historic Armory Park blog and website have been publicized on the Armory Park listserv but has not had the critical test, feedback from users. Since it is a tool to make the historic review process go a little easier for applicants and the board, its value remains untested. Only after an applicant conceives a project, and uses the information here to propose to the board (APHZAB) will the site's value be tested and improved.

Historic Review a Little Easier Now

 If you've seriously considered doing some work on your historic Armory Park home, you probably struggled with the complexity of the mandatory historic review process. Well, the process is still complex, but information is getting a little easier to come by. First, if you go to the City's historic review webpage (https://www.tucsonaz.gov/preservation/city-historic-designations-and-design-review) you will find links to most of the information needed to begin your historic review application. The requirements can seem complicated and the process challenging, but at least the basic information can be easily found. 

 I've started posting history articles in the History web pages. The most recent is about the railroads that helped to shape Tucson. The Southern Pacific was the principal force in the creation of the Armory Park neighborhood. Railroad employees at various levels of the company owned or rented in Armory Park. The land on which Armory Park del Sol is situated was railroad property until recent decades.