Storytelling Historic North Fourth Avenue

Abstract

Historic landscapes are often times only thought about in terms of park-scapes, this project redefines the term “historic landscape” to include urban heritage and historic districts. Through this redefined terminology, we look at the Fourth Avenue Historic District in Tucson, Arizona to understand how and why an urban district could be re-imagined as an historic landscape.

From 1903 to 1967 the Fourth Avenue Historic District saw a lot of change. The changes made across the district reflect the evolving needs of the users of the district from residential to commercial purposes. The district is comprised of historic buildings, reflecting the work of several master architects, and several legacy businesses, while not contributing to the historic nature of The Avenue, are never-the-less important as contributing to the cultural significance of Fourth Avenue and Tucson.

This work focuses primarily on the research done in order to provide the Historic Fourth Avenue Coalition enough material to begin an historic interpretation project. That effort, while ongoing, is an important step towards creating an education space that helps regular users and occasional visitors consider the broader impacts of the history of the community, and the cultural heritage, that Fourth Avenue represents for Tucson.