Historic Downtown
Downtown’s First Plazas
by Ken Scoville
he public square, or plaza in the Spanish tradition, is the traditional focal point of urban life in western civilization, and the life of the square is intertwined with the history of towns and cities. The public square has evolved from ancient civilizations in Greece and Rome, to the towns of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and was brought to the New World with many different labels. A square has distinct qualities: public access and activity, diversity of uses and users, and the idea of embodying and reinforcing the architecture and history of the place it embraces. The drama of human life for that town or city is played out on the square, with the best of such public spaces giving a sense of place for celebration, history, and civic pride.
The plazas that became part of early Tucson were the result of Spanish influence on the New World. How the New World would look was part of an earlier manifest destiny of conquest and conversion by Spanish rule and a duty to God. In 1573, the Council of the Indies formalized much of what had already transpired in the New World and gave detailed instruction as to site selection, defense, housing, and plazas. The plaza was conceived as a symbol of authority with specific proportions and building lots around the plaza reserved for the church, government, customs house, and hospital. The streets would enter the plaza at the corners and a perimeter ratio of 3:2 (length to width) was considered the most suitable for fiestas when horses were used. A multitude of ordinances in the Laws of the Indies pertain to the design of the plaza, including specifications for the streets leading to the plaza, how certain buildings were to be adorned with portales, and how the plaza was to be the heart of the city.
The major plazas in the heart of the Old Pueblo evolved from different origins and uses but were the focal point of village life during the Presidio era and later on. The earliest map of Tucson, drawn by John Mills, Jr., for Major David Fergusson in 1862, indicates the location of the three major plazas of that era and their earliest names representing Spanish traditions. Within the boundaries of the Presidio were the Plaza Militar and the much larger Plaza de las Armas. During Presidio times there also existed a Plaza Iglesia which was in front of the Chapel of San Agustin; it was built in 1779 but was not indicated on the Fergusson map. The Plaza Militar was not shown on the earliest Sanborn insurance maps of 1883 but Plaza de las Armas was still indicated. These plazas functioned for conducting military drills, but the larger Plaza de las Armas was also used for fiestas and public events while the Plaza Iglesia was intertwined with religious events. The plazas continued their sense of place for public gathering when the community was part of Mexico.
The Plaza de las Armas would adopt the more popular name of Court Plaza in the 1880s because of the relationship to the courthouses built on essentially the same location that the 1928 Pima County Courthouse now stands. During Territorial times the plaza would continue as a gathering place for the community for celebrations and more grim events including our most famous lynching in 1873. Urban renewal during the 1960s brought demolition of the traditional park and band shell, and a roof-top park over a parking garage replaced the physical elements of our past, but the function for public gatherings in El Presidio Park persists.
The Plaza de la Mesilla is further south on the Fergusson map and has its origins when Tucson was part of Mexico and was a major stop for commerce between the town of Mesilla in what is now New Mexico and Yuma. This location for commerce continued during Territorial times. The San Agustin Church, established in the 1860s, continued the Spanish tradition of the church anchoring the plaza. Bishop J.B. Salpointe came to Tucson in 1870, years before the church’s completion, and spent more than a decade raising funds. All these efforts would seem for naught when the congregation moved to South Stone Avenue in 1896 and constructed a new and improved San Agustin Cathedral. Forty years later, the church would be demolished but elements of the front arch and the rosette window eventually found a home as the entrance to the Arizona Historical Society. What remains of this plaza, now called La Placita, is the result of urban renewal and the realignment of Broadway and Congress. The gazebo and half-moon-shaped park were saved by struggling preservationists and continue to provide respite from the Tucson heat as they have since Territorial times.
The planners of the new Civic and Cultural Plazas might take some cues from the Council of the Indies in their design, and perhaps some of the existing plazas can also be improved, so that all the plazas, old and new, will give a “sense of place” for celebration, history, and civic pride in Tucson.
