Dunbar/Spring

Dunbar/Spring

Introduction

The following is taken from the "John Spring Historical Survey" produced in 1985, with a grant from the State Historic Preservation Office. As it is a lengthy document, these are only small selections from it. The entire document is available for viewing at the Arizona Historical Society.

History: Settlement Years

The neighborhood began to be settled in the late 1890s when Tucson's northward expansion leap-frogged the railroad tracks and the arroyo along which they passed.

The neighborhood's mostly-Sonoran architecture and mostly-Hispanic population reflected pre-railroad tradition; its mix of rich and poor, obsure and prominent – from teamster to mining magnate – represented the residential democracy that had prevailed downtown.

But downtown was filling with Americans, and by 1900 Tucsonans found it necessary to extend northward along the prestigious residential streets of Main and Stone, along the latter into what is now Dunbar/Spring. Despite the smart suburban mood of Stone Avenue, the neighborhood's interior must have felt bucolic, with its scattered clusters of houses and its windmills – for the water mains did not arrive north of the railroad tracks until later in the decade.

Within the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood are some 250 structures from the pre-1936 historic period in an area of less than one square mile. Well over half of the historic-era building took place in the eight years 1918-1925 giving it a temporal unity, supported by the strong stylistic theme of the bungalow and the minor notes of Mission and Spanish Colonial revivals. Supported by generally appropriate landscaping and street trees and well-scaled street spaces, the ensemble creates a distinctive place, different from others in Tucson or elsewhere, where an individual experience of the past can still be felt.

History: Residents

Our experience of the past is most unusual in that the neighborhood has long had five different ethnic-racial strains living side by side: Anglo, Black, Chinese, Hispanic, and Yaqui Indian (now living to the north). Individuals in each group have attained exceptional achievement, and each group has been represented by one or more of its pioneer Tucsonans.

About our association

Neighborhood Association Meetings

Neighborhood Association Meetings are held the third Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. at the Friendship Baptist Church, located on the southeast corner of 11th Avenue and 2nd Street. Anyone who owns property and/or lives in the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood is welcome. There are no membership dues or fees. You become a member by participating.

Agenda for Next Meeting, September 17

Introductions
Minutes from August 20 Meeting
Updates: (Guests to the meeting go first!)
Police Report - Officer Wildblood
Back to Basics - Stan
Traffic Circles - Jonathan
Block Captains - Paul
Dunbar Coalition - Stan, Rita, or Brad
Action Item: Revising the By-Laws. Need to create a committee and set the specifics of the task.