Review: Tucson, A Drama in Time

 

Rob Caylor loaned me this book when we met at the historic Blenman Inn, just west of the Children's Museum. Margo and Rob own this wonderful inn and I was enjoying a tour of the house. Rob has been developing properties in Tucson for many years and he enjoyed following the growth of Tucson over the decades. 

The book's format is unusual, paragraph length historic facts arranged in order by years. This arrangement makes it easy to follow the evolution of Tucson and makes it easy to read in many sittings. I rarely read a history in one or a few sittings; more often I read a number of pages then continue at a later time. 

This is a great book if you want to understand Tucson at various times in its long history. Individuals, family and businesses can be followed over a number of years. The names are likely to be familiar to long time residents or more recent arrivals (like me) who like history. It is available at Amazon in paperback ($24.95) or in the Kindle electronic format ($9.99). I chose the latter format. 

This link will take you to the appropriate Amazon page: 
https://smile.amazon.com/Tucson-Drama-Time-John-Warnock-ebook/dp/B07YZ1BK35/ref=sr_1_9?crid=TDOT5TKQCMF3&keywords=tucson+arizona+history&qid=1638816708&s=digital-text&sprefix=tucson%2Caps%2C256&sr=1-9

Review: Living in the Past

An Owner's Guide to Understanding & Repairing an Old Home

Many people coming to Armory Park are novices in the details of living in an historic home and neighborhood. Author Scott Sidler has provided answers to the questions us novices should have asked. 

Perhaps the best way to learn what this book has to offer is to review the subject matter extracted from the Table of Contents:

WHO NEEDS THIS BOOK?

INTRODUCTION

UNDERSTANDING YOUR OLD HOUSE

WHAT IS A HISTORIC HOUSE?

WHY SHOULD I BUY AN OLD HOUSE?

BEFORE YOU BUY AN OLD HOUSE

PRESERVATION OR REMODELING

DEALING WITH HISTORIC DISTRICTS

THE "GREEN" OLD HOME

MODERN LIFE IN AN OLD HOUSE

RENOVATING THE RIGHT WAY

THE DANGERS OF DEFERRED MAINTENANCE

HISTORIC HOME MAINTENANCE 101

THE 5 WORST MISTAKES OF HISTORIC HOME OWNERS

OLD HOUSE HEALTH HAZARDS

REPAIRING YOUR OLD HOUSE

WORKING WITH FLOORS

WORKING WITH WINDOWS

WORKING WITH DOORS

WORKING WITH PLASTER

WORKING WITH EXTERIOR WOOD

WORKING WITH PAINT

WHY DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER

The best time to read the book is before purchasing an historic property. The challenges of maintaining or repairing an old house may be more than you want to take on. If you have exterior changes in mind, you may find that the historic review process will make those changes impossible or more difficult. The process will always take time and may incur more cost. There are permit fees involved.

If you decide to go forward or already own an Armory Park property, the second section can be helpful. The tips regarding some of the most common repair tasks may help with your repairs. 

I couldn't find the book in the Pima County Library system. The print version of the book is fairly expensive at $33 but you can buy the Kindle version for $10. Here is the link at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=living+in+the+past&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Whichever you choose, this book will be useful as you live the adventure of caring for an old house or decide that this adventure is not for you. 

Research Team

History research can be a team sport. Finding historic details is like a detective story. Success is built on leads, tips and networking with others who may have a part of the picture. Put these things together and another bit of Armory Park history emerges. I would like to facilitate collaboration among the Armory Park residents who are interested in our history. 

There are two ways for you history buffs to stay engaged. The easiest is to become a follower which you can do by clicking on the blue button in the left column. This will notify you of each post to this blog. 

The second way is to become part of the Armory Park history discussion group. Just send me an email indicating your desire to join and I'll add you to the list. This will be a forum for sharing neighborhood history and research options. Since not all Armory Park listserv members are history buffs, it is considerate for us to limit the amount of discussion on that platform. Since only people interested in history will sign up to our discussion group, you can feel free to discuss whatever you want. 

I hope one or both of these options will help you to be a part of our Armory Park history research team. If you have trouble with either, please let me know at blog@kmtaylor.com. 

Research Tools: Tucson Directories

Even before the telephone came to Tucson, directories of businesses and residents were published. This first image is from the 1901 directory, page 66. It shows that a person named F B French lived at 637 S 4th Avenue, my house. If you are scrolling through the PDF copy of the directory, it will show as page 89 because of the un-numbered pages which are counted by my PDF software. If you scroll through to page 109 of the pdf, you will find another name, O H J Johnson, associated with the same address. This is page 86 of the paper directory. Paper copies of the directories can be found at the historic society but they are in resident name order so finding a particular address is very difficult. 

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.