Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) Review of Tucson Indian School Records

The PHS conducted an extensive review of their operation of the Tucson Indian School which is accessible online here. The review report is well worth reading in its entirety because of its completeness and candor in addressing the subject. A descriptive paragraph from the report follows: 

"In winter of 2023, when we at the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) Reparative Description Committee were auditing archival collection guides for harmful and oppressive language, the records of the Tucson Indian Training School (Record Group 103) caught our attention. As we wrote in our first blog post on the topic, reparative description is the practice of critically examining and ultimately adjusting the way we as an institution describe or characterize marginalized groups, paying particular attention to instances where our description inflicts harm, spreads false narratives, or minimizes past and ongoing injustices.  In reading the original collection guide, we immediately recognized outdated terms were used to refer to the Akimel O'odham (Pima) and Tohono O’odham (Papago) people, but, upon further reflection, noted that the lived experiences of these Indigenous groups were erased and misrepresented through omission and under-description rather than through outdated language alone. The use of a neutral voice glossed over government and church policies of assimilation and cultural destruction and left out students’ points of view." 

An image of the Escuela News, the school newspaper, gives the reader of the school's function in 1960. The reader may also notice a condescending tone in describing the students. Other images include student photos and documents related to student enrollment and their work on a well replacement project. 

Much of the latter part of the review will be of more interest to a researcher than to someone interested in the students or school life. There are links to other materials that may be of interest. Images related to Tucson can be seen here. 

Historic Blenman Inn

This excellent piece by KGUN9 tells a good story about the Blenman Inn today and how it came to be. Margo and Rob Caylor are the owners of the inn and have preserved its historic character while offering comfortable accommodations to the traveling public. Margo is an accomplished amateur historian and has filled in many details of the house's history and its most significant residents. I've had the pleasure of touring the inn and it is even more appealing in person. 

You can view the video by clicking below: 

Railroad Coal Tower

 There has been some listserv discussion recently regarding a coal tower the railroad used to fuel its steam locomotives back in the day. Tod Santee did a post  that inspired me to do a search for the matter in the Star archives. Here is what Tod had to say: 

  "Up until way back in '97-'98 or so, there was an historic coal tower straddling the tracks almost directly east of 16th St & Toole.  One day we found out Union Pacific or Southern Pacific RR was preparing to knock it down with a wrecking ball but only because of the news that a homeless guy who had apparently been living inside the upper part for a few years when he came to Tucson during his transience.  He climbed out on the roof of it basically daring the wreckers to "go ahead and try" according to so news reports & interviews he got with the Star.

ARIZONA STATE HISTORIC PROPERTY INVENTORY

For those seeking more background on a historic home, here is another source. The Arizona State Historic Property Inventory is the survey report which was written in 1974 as part of the application for National Historic Residential status. The entry for each property includes a description of the house, information regarding the owner at that time drawings of the house footprint and pictures. Like any history resource, not all information may be accurate. For example, my house is listed as constructed in 1905. The Sanborn insurance map shows the house in 1901. The 1901 Tucson directory lists two men living at the address. Nevertheless, The description and period photos give me an idea of what changes have been made to the house since 1974. Additional work was done in 1993 so some information is from that year.

If you are doing a project requiring historic review, The information will tell you how the property was at the time the historic district was formed. The board will want to retain the details of the house during the period of significance (1860s to 1945). The 1974 survey is the earliest reliable information available.

Aerial Photos

There has been some  interest in aerial photos of the neighborhood. Here is a link that was recommended:  https://www.abovetucson.com/. 

For copyright reasons, I can't put those images here but you can take a look. 

2019

This is Armory Park in 2019 from Google Maps. It is essentially what you see today including Armory Park del Sol. 

History Feedback - Wow!

I'm greatly impressed by all the feedback and historic vignettes about people and places in our neighborhood history. Two preserve all of this as a basis for future articles, I'm posting the essence of the emails responding to the request I made for feedback and historic tips. I am seeking collaborators and history leads to discover more of our history. If anyone is good at recording oral histories (I'm not), that would be especially useful. 

Controversial Use of Public Spaces

We may think debates about the use of public spaces is only a current concern (think Children's Museum). History tells us that this has been a long term concern that surfaces from time to time. The Arizona Daily Star of January 7, 1926 (ten pages, 5 cents a copy) contained the following: 

Contention that the proposed creation of a recreation park out of Armory park will result in irreparable damage to the park by the destruction of large trees and palms and the erection of unsightly structures in the park is set forth In a suit filed at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon against the city of Tucson and Mayor John IL White by Francis M. Hartman and Mae B. Hartman in which they seek an order from the superior court restraining the city from carrying out the proposed plan. 

Four Named Streets

Most Armory Park streets are designated with numbers but there are four with names that have a connection to early residents of Tucson. I was unable to find the namesakes of Bean and Russell Avenues. If you come across something about them, please let me know. 

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.