Tucson Circa 1905-1910

What is geo-locating? It's finding the location of an old photo. Where was the photographer standing? Which way was he looking? Geo-locating old postcard scenes is a fun but time-consuming pastime. However, it's rather rewarding when we can delve far enough into the past to pin precisely where a scene was located.  The photo above started us off 19SEP20 on a jaunt around Tucson's downtown area circa 1905-1910 when the Old Pueblo's population ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 hardy Territorial residents.  Even though most folks would be satisfied to know this scene showed "Congress Street Looking East" we wanted to know precisely WHERE on Congress Street???

Source:

Luckily we were able to find a 1907 postcard view of downtown Tucson looking toward the southeast.  After a careful study of this postcard we picked out an unmistakable telltale clue that tied this wide angle view to the first postcard of Congress Street.

Source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tucson-Arizona-1907-Birds-Eye/333724668508

Once you spot a building with a curved front façade, you have sufficient visual information to turn to every amateur historian's "go to" resource---The Sanborn Fire Maps!  Sources for both photos listed above.

Sanborn Fire Maps are an amazing, incredible resource.  They are easy to find at the Library of Congress.  The trick is in combing through their many pages to find just the "right match" for our quest. In this case, the curved front elevation of that building was all the clue we needed.

Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn00180_004/

Since we already knew the scene was from Congress Street all we had to do was look for a corner building with a curved front.  Presto!  There it is at the corner of Stone and Congress!  Therefore, by definition, the photographer's POV is geo-located near the middle of Congress Street slightly west of Stone Avenue.  A confirming clue is that the Sanborn Fire Map shows the Ivancovich Building which is prominent in the first postcard view.  Bingo!  We Got This!  

Source listed above.

Using that geo-location success story, we were then able to nail down how Congress Street and Stone Avenue appears in the 1907 Bird's Eye View.  The short line on left is Stone.  The long horizontal line is Congress.  East is left and west is right.  South is in front of you in this view.

Source listed above.

But what about those two gi-normous buildings showing in the downtown view.  Let's geo-locate them!

Source listed above.

To find further fun we turned to the 1909 Sanborn Fire Map.

Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn00180_005/

That first big white building in the red box at left was The famous Santa Rita Hotel located on the southeast corner of Scott and Broadway.  The Santa Rita vaulted Tucson into The Big Time.

Source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vignette-Postcard-Santa-Rita-Hotel-Tucson-AZ/192325879423

Over two thousand Tucsonians turned out for the February 1, 1904, Grand Opening of The Santa Rita.  The local newspaper raved about the place.  You can find and enlarge the above article here:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59585502/santa-rita-opening-coverage/

Interestingly, famed Southwest architect Henry Trost designed the Santa Rita AND the other building.

Yes, believe it or not, that other building in the far background in the right hand red box is the iconic Tucson Carnegie Library, also designed by Henry Trost.  Trost would go on to become a both a Living and Forever Legend in El Paso, Texas.  The Trost Society there keeps his legacy alive through prolific documentation and celebration of The Trost portfolio.

Source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-Postcard-1903-Carnegie-Free-Library-Postcard-Tucson-AZ-Houston-El-Paso-RPO/274497374633

Trost Society: https://www.facebook.com/TrostSociety

While we were digging around on eBay for Old Pueblo street scenes we found this view of Congress Street looking east.  Of course, we already knew right where the photographer's POV was geo-located.

Source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tucson-Arizona-1908-Congress-street-Looking-East/333724604534

Another interesting challenge arose today when we found this postcard view labeled "Stone Avenue Looking South."  Once again, where the heck is it?  There are no obvious, telltale clues in this view to help us geo-locate the scene.

Source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tucson-Arizona-1912-Second-avenue-Looking-South/333724631797

So we turned to the priceless AZ Memory Project online digital archives.  Sure enuf, this view of Stone Avenue turned up and it's a close match to the above photo even though the archive date is wrong.  We enlarged it and cropped it.  At far left, you can see "Bells Drug" and across the street you can clearly see a "Cigars" sign.  Well, that's all we needed.

Source: https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/digital/collection/histphotos/id/33021/rec/2

We turned to the always trusty Library of Congress Sanborn Fire Map and, after extensive searching, found a drug store across the street from a news and cigars store at Stone and Pennington.  BINGO!
The photographer's POV was therefore geo-located just north of Pennington from the middle of Stone looking south, of course.

Source cited above.

Aye, much work remains to be done but we're calling it a day today.  This little Sweetie has yet to be geo-located.  However, knowing what you've just learned here, perhaps YOU can find where the photographer stood when he created this timeless scene.

Source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tucson-Arizona-1900-10s-Stone-Avenue-looking-North/333724632522

Thanks for reading!  May your geo-location detective works always be successful!

John Parsons, Rimrock, Arizona.