Mountain View Black Officers Club makes historic list

[Source: Bill Hess, Sierra Vista Herald/Review] -- The World War II-era black officers’ club on Fort Huachuca has been listed as one of 12 Arizona’s Most Endangered Historic Places by the Arizona State Preservation Foundation. The listing on Jan. 24 is seen as an additional positive step by the president of the Southwest Association of Buffalo Soldiers in the organization’s attempt to save Building 66050. “It (the listing) brings us more publicity and will help in fund-raising,” Tom Stoney Sr. said Monday. SWABS has also applied to the National Trust for placing the black officers’ club on its annual list of historic places in danger, he said, adding, the national list is expected to be out in May.

Jim McPherson, president of the nonprofit Arizona Preservation Foundation, agrees that being listed in the state will help organizations raise money to save facilities with significant historic ties to the state. The foundation has existed since 1979. Every year 11 or 12 historic places are listed, he said.

Vince Murray, the foundation’s vice president and chairman of the organization’s Most Endangered Historic Places review committee, said, “All the properties we have named are important historic sites in Arizona, but unfortunately are in grave danger of collapse, demolition or destruction.” [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

New city and county plan to protect Tucson's Tumamoc Hill rezones it

[Source: Erica Meltzer, Arizona Daily Star] -- City and county officials have a new plan to ensure 320 acres of state trust land on Tumamoc Hill never becomes a housing development. The move comes just days after the Arizona Preservation Foundation named the Desert Laboratory one of the most endangered historic sites in the state. The plan will require the cooperation of state land officials. Tucson City Councilman Jose Ibarra and Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, whose ward and district include Tumamoc Hill, have asked the state to reduce the zoning on the site to prevent it from being developed and to reduce its market value. In exchange, the city and the county would allow more intensive land use on other state trust land.

The hill west of Downtown is part of the University of Arizona's century-old desert plant research center, but the land could be sold for development to raise money for public schools. "If you put a high-intensity housing development next door, it would endanger the long-term integrity of the Desert Laboratory," said Julio Betancourt, the laboratory's director. "If they could down-zone it to make it less palatable to developers, that would be a good thing."

Its current zoning would allow one house per acre to be built on the flatter lands on the west side of the hill. The zoning could be changed to either institutional reserve or open space, Ibarra said. "By taking this action, it gets us extremely close to protecting a vital research park and open space," he said. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]

City budget crunch threatens Mesa Grande mound

[Source: Art Thomason, Arizona Republic] -- While eliminating jobs and services to deal with a fiscal crisis, Mesa also faces the prospect of losing one of its most historic sites. The Mesa Grande Platform Mound Ruins, one of three such remaining sites built by the Hohokams around AD 1000-1400, is on the Arizona Preservation Foundation's 2006 list of the state's most endangered historic places. The ruins, which are on the National Register of Historic Places, are "in grave danger of collapse, demolition, or destruction," said Vince Murray of Tempe, vice president of the foundation's board of directors. "The city of Mesa has basically ignored it." The foundation consists of preservation professionals and historians.

The ruins, which belong to the city and are cared for by the Mesa Southwest Museum, "are tremendously significant to the history of the Southwest and to North America," the museum's director, Tom Wilson, said. "They're one of three major, remaining ruins," he said. The others are the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archeological Park in Phoenix and the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument near Casa Grande.

[Note: To read the full article, click here. Photo source: Banner Health.]

Phoenix heats up over last Chinatown building

[Source: Allison Firestone, Preservation Online] -- In Phoenix, tension is escalating this month over the last remaining structure from the city's early 20th-century Chinatown neighborhood. Thirteen community and preservation organizations filed an appeal with Maricopa County Superior Court on Jan. 13, challenging the city council's approval of a downtown development project that would remove the roof of the 1929 Sun Mercantile building. The groups say plans for the city-owned, National Register-listed structure violate the city's historic preservation code.

The Southwest Value Partners, led by Phoenix Suns majority owner Robert Sarver, wants to build a $200 million luxury apartment and condominium complex that includes an 11-story addition atop the existing "Sun Merc" building and an adjacent 39-story complex. Local organizations sought 4,500 square feet of museum space dedicated to the building's cultural history, but at a meeting on Dec. 14, the council would only authorize 1,000 square feet, an amount to which developers would not commit.

Since the appeal's filing, the city has decided to reopen negotiations with the Save SunMerc Coalition. Arizona Preservation Foundation President Jim McPherson, one of the representatives planning to meet with the city this week, says the coalition wants "to see that the [11-story addition] does not happen and that the full-size Asian American museum is there." It is not opposed to the construction north of the Sun Mercantile building.

[Note: To read the full article, click here. Photo source: Steve Weiss.]