Historic Downtown

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The 1930s: A Quiet Decade in the Old Pueblo

by Ken Scoville

he decade of the 1930s in Tucson featured landmark events for the community, with one even bringing national attention, but most of those years saw a small desert town that drew inward because of the Depression. There was no major industry in the Old Pueblo to collapse, but bank runs and food lines impacted everyone, and the culture evolved to the point where everyone owed everyone money. The population of approximately 32,000 within the city limits allowed a network of barter and borrow to function and Tucsonans paid their bills when they could. The word “collapse” was in everyone’s vocabulary; copper prices fell to unbelievable lows, and cotton and cattle also failed as mainstays of Arizona’s economy.

People who had made lives in Arizona saw themselves as rugged individualists but the Depression had deepened by 1933 and the New Deal programs provided meaningful work for the betterment of Tucson. The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration made the difference for many in the community and those accomplishments are still appreciated today. The road up to Sabino Canyon, the stone bridges crossing the creek, and the Mount Lemmon highway are lasting monuments. A multitude of improvements to the town were made possible through the New Deal.

Small-town Tucson was dealing with much adversity but “old timers” remember the community uniting like it had never done before or since. Oliver Drachman reminisced, “On Saturday night it was beautiful, everybody came out, and you met your friends and walked about.” The Fox Theater became a mainstay during the thirties and provided a necessary escape from reality thanks to Hollywood and refrigeration. The Fox added greatly to the closeness of the community and became our first “community center.”

There was also the flip side to poverty with bootlegging and prostitution flourishing along with new schemes and shady deals. A steady hand at city government was necessary to deal with the multitude of issues brought by the Depression. Henry O. Jaastad was Norwegian-born and trained as an architect but became mayor of Tucson in 1933, during the most severe time of the Depression. He had a reputation as a proficient administrator from earlier town work and truly had a vision for the future of Tucson. His calm demeanor could change if there was an issue that was being thwarted at the expense of the community’s future.

The plan for the Stone Avenue underpass had been halted by a court injunction initiated by merchants downtown who felt their businesses would be negatively impacted. Jaastad’s quiet repose vanished and he threatened to sue each merchant involved for the damage done to the city. His steady leadership administered government funds for the community without scandal or cronyism.

The decade of the 1930s provided many events that would forever shape the future of Tucson and add much to the personality of the community. Desert preservation became a reality in 1930 with the establishment of Tucson Mountain Park, thanks to the efforts of agricultural agent C. B. Brown. Isabella Greenway would finish her vision of hospitality, the Arizona Inn, by the end of the year and become Arizona’s first Congresswoman in 1932. Our western heritage became famous when Tucson High graduate Bob Nolan wrote “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” in 1934, after teaming up with Roy Rogers and founding the Sons of the Pioneers.

The dark side of human endeavor would also become prominent in 1934 and bring national attention to Tucson with the capture of John Dillinger and his gang members in late January. A small desert town would be an excellent place to “lay low” but they obviously got too relaxed in the Old Pueblo and let their guard down. Irony played heavily into their capture, with the Congress Hotel catching fire and several patrons being obsessively concerned about their gun-laden luggage, to the point of having firemen go back into the building to rescue these precious items.

The chance reading of “True Detective Mysteries” started the connection between one of the concerned patrons and the Dillinger Gang. Gang member Charles Makley was brought in while visiting Grabe Electric on Congress Street. Russell Clark and Opal Love were arrested “in the suburbs” in the 900 block of North Second Avenue (on the Downtown side of the UA campus). A routine car pullover captured Harry Pierpoint, and John Dillinger was apprehended as he casually walked towards the rented home on Second Avenue. Tucson and its provincial police got their five minutes of fame with front-page attention around the country.

The decade would finish with three events that would foretell the future for the entire area. South Tucson came into existence with its incorporation in 1936 and would be a harbinger of the desire for residents to shape their own destiny. The first suburban shopping center would open in 1939 at the southwest corner of Broadway and Country Club, under the banner of Broadway Village. The decade would finish where it started with the construction of a movie set in the desert preserve that had been established nine years earlier, Tucson Mountain Park. The movie “Arizona” would bring another landmark to the community, known today as “Old Tucson.”

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