Historic Downtown

---

Former Montgomery Ward/Walgreens Building a Candidate for Historic Restoration

by Ken Scoville

he recent announcement that the City of Tucson and Pima County have formed a partnership to restore and bring life back to the former Walgreens building at the southeast corner of Stone and Pennington is good news from both the standpoint of re-activating Tucson’s busiest pedestrian corner and also developing the historic environment of Downtown Tucson.

The simple fact that the building was the location of a Walgreens store would seem to make it unlikely to be considered historic. The drugstore chain has a penchant for obtaining a commercial corner at every busy intersection in Tucson, and with the architecture design of a fast-food outlet. But old-timers would tell you that the Downtown Walgreens building at 44-60 N. Stone has a history. For many years it was the Montgomery Ward store and across the street on the southwest corner was Steinfeld’s Department Store. This was when Downtown was “the” shopping district. Stone and Pennington was a must destination for any shopping adventure and the Pioneer Hotel offered the perfect lunch setting. This makes the building a sentimental favorite for retention, but there is work underway also at evaluating the building’s remaining architectural integrity and merit.

The recent evaluation of the building by the architecture firm of Poster Frost provides insight to the guidelines for the National Register of Historic Places. These criteria examine historical context, significance, integrity, and age, along with standards for restoration.

Historical events in a community provide the context for why a building is designed in a certain way and how it reflects what is happening at the time of construction. The building was constructed in 1929 during a time that Spanish Colonial Revival architecture was in vogue and Downtown Tucson was experiencing rapid growth. The structure is now 75 years old, so it certainly meets the age requirement of fifty years that establishes the threshold for eligibility for the National Register. It was given a significant remodel in 1956 as many store fronts were being “modernized.”

There is great strength to the significance of the building in that it is the work of a master architect with high artistic value. Roy Place practiced architecture in Tucson for over 40 years, and his firm was prolific in the number of commissions and quality design in a number of different styles. In the 1920s Place interpreted the Spanish Colonial Revival style in his designs for the Pima County Courthouse, Veterans Administration Hospital, and the Montgomery Ward building. The Ward store was of high artistic value with rich details in a scale proportionate to its location and at the height of Place’s career using this style. The distinctive characteristics of the Spanish Colonial Revival were seen in the details; it is a superb example of this style in a commercial building. Roy Place was a renowned architect in Tucson during this era, with a portfolio of landmark designs including the Hotel Congress (1919), the bank building at 150 N. Stone (1955), Tucson High School (1924-1949), Bear Down Gym (1926), and the Pioneer Hotel (1928).

The significance issue for the National Register is whether the building is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad pattern of our history. Again, the Ward building sits at an important business location in downtown along with other commercial enterprises, and it symbolizes the commercial heyday for the Old Pueblo.

A key area for debate concerning the listing of a historic building is the integrity to the existing building related to location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association. The Montgomery Ward/Walgreens building’s integrity was compromised to some degree when the original design was destroyed or masked during a 1956 remodeling. Much of the original building does remain and the historic function of the building continued until the closure of Walgreens about a year ago. The setting has changed drastically with the demolition of other retail landmarks including Steinfeld’s and Jacome’s but the Pioneer Hotel and the Pima County Courthouse continue the historic context, especially for Spanish Colonial Revival design during the same era. Much of the original materials remain under the 1956 rehabilitation but the key exterior materials were lost as were the feeling and the association with other retail properties.

Preservation often comes down to whether the glass is half empty or half full. The concepts of restoration and reconstruction become viable opportunities when the majority of the fabric remains and documentation of the period to be depicted is available. Restoration seeks to depict the features and character of a property in a particular period, while reconstruction is the reproduction of the exact form and detail of missing elements to the specific period interpreted.

The Montgomery Ward building appears to be a viable candidate for restoration and reconstruction since the building retains the majority of the original fabric and reconstruction, which are necessary elements to interpret the building’s history. A final key element is the survival of sufficient documentary evidence for the reconstruction. This Roy Place landmark, if restored, would be a great addition to the commercial legacy of Downtown Tucson.

---

---

BACK