Historic Downtown

---

One Hundred Years of Development on Pennington

Green Space near Main Library a recent phenomenon

by Ken Scoville

he recent proposal to build Tucson’s tallest building on the plaza next to the Main Library was met with some criticism regarding its location. Critics disagreed with the idea of building on a Downtown green space, even likening it to “sacred space”. In terms of the history of the site, however, the fact is that it has been green space for a relatively short period of time. Preserving the greenery along Pennington adjacent to Jacome Plaza would actually halt more than a century of continuous development at that location.

In 1870, Tucson was sprawling beyond the remains of the Presidio walls both to the north and south, but the eastern edge of town was Stone Avenue. Court Plaza (today El Presidio Park) and the Plaza de Mesilla (La Placita’s plaza) were islands of greenery with development enclosing these public spaces. Lots were being subdivided and commercial corridors established as Tucson became a major freighting center with a growing population that would see the arrival of the railroad and new reasons to grow in 1880.

George Hand’s map of Tucson from the 1870s shows a rooming house opposite the site of today’s Old Pima County Courthouse, and adobe buildings occupying the land on the north side of Pennington between Church Street and Stone, a fact confirmed by the 1883 Sanborn fire insurance map of Tucson. The only open space was a yard for each property with the notation of the occasional garden. In 1901, the dwellings were still in existence but a new neighbor to the north on Church, the electric light and power company, is indicated on the Sanborn map. Eight years later at the northwest corner of Stone and Pennington the federal government had arrived in the form of the United States Post Office. A more locally famous owner was indicated by 1922 with the post office and several dwellings being replaced by the Albert Steinfeld Grocery store. The Tucson Gas and Electric Light and Power Company had moved to just north of the grocery store, fronting on Stone Avenue. The financial success of Albert and Harold Steinfeld is evident by 1930 at Stone and Pennington with the Pioneer Hotel on the northeast corner, Steinfeld’s Department Store at the southwest corner, and much of the northwest corner occupied by the grocery and hardware enterprises.

A monumental change arrived at the northwest corner in 1951 with the completion of Jacome’s Department Store. This contemporary building of concrete and steel with a rose brick veneer featured display windows along the entire frontage on Stone and Pennington. The most surprising aspect of the new store was that the builder and owner of the property was a major competitor across the street, Steinfeld’s. Harold Steinfeld announced his plans to construct the new building for Jacome’s in August of 1950 at a cost of $500,000, with Alex Jacome agreeing to a 30-year lease. Both businessmen realized the benefits of being neighbors for the convenience of shoppers, and both were celebrated Tucson originals who continued the traditions established by their fathers. Decades of success continued for both establishments but suburban shopping centers and urban renewal brought the end to Downtown as a shopper’s paradise.

As retailing collapsed throughout Downtown, the land beneath gained greater value as sites for high-rise office buildings. Similar circumstances existed in other Sunbelt cities where the automobile was dominant. The closing of Jacome’s in 1980 completed a cascade of store closings throughout Downtown in the five years preceding the end of their 84 years of merchandising in the same location. High-rise dreams became a terminal reality for Steinfeld’s Department store, which gave way to the office tower known today as Bank of America Plaza. The same fate befell the Jacome’s site in July of 1981 when newspaper articles made the formal announcement. The Steinfeld Trust owned land where Jacome’s, J.C. Penney, and the Downtown Shoppers’ Parking Garage were still standing and available for purchase at a price of $4.75 million.

Cottonwood Properties purchased the Steinfeld Trust properties in November of the same year and the company made preparations for new office towers. The concept of an office high-rise was proposed in early 1985 in conjunction with a new downtown library to be sited just north of the 22-story-high rise and south of Alameda. The new parking garage would be shared by both facilities. After lengthy negotiation, the development plan changed. The City would purchase the former Steinfeld Trust property and enter into a lease agreement with Cottonwood; then the company would post a $3 million bond as proof of their intentions and go ahead with the tower construction. Three years later the real estate market was in almost total collapse; savings and loans and major developers, including Cottonwood Properties, were among the casualties. Cottonwood’s plans were not to be, but the City retained ownership of the land and the $3 million bond.

The Main Library became a reality but a proposal to build a new City Hall tower at the northeast corner of Pennington and Church fell through in the late 1990s. Highest and best use of particular parcels of land in dense urban areas is rarely a park with an oasis of trees, and with a fairly limited supply of developable sites in the office core of Downtown, the green space along Pennington is likely to be eyed for high-density development until it becomes a reality. Development at this location will surely continue, as it has for over a century.

---

---

BACK