Sierra Vista, AZ History: June 2013

Friday, June 21, 2013

66 N. Garden Ave.......

A 1959 Gateway Times Progress Edition article on when Whiteheads Furniture Company started doing business in Fry/Sierra Vista. In 1962 the store was sold to the Reed family and became Reed's Furniture Store. In the late 60s Jack Hass bought the property and turned into Atlas Furniture.

....

Atlas Furniture....

.. 2001 photo taken by Doug Stephens.

66 N. Garden Ave. Now...

Commercial office space.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Meadors Grocery

Across the street from Carmichael School, a community small grocery store. Mr. and Mrs. Meadors

taking care of their customer. Gateway Times ad announcing their Grand Opening in 1963. Photos

courtesy The Henry Hauser Museum.

The Gate Theater 1942...

Early in 1942, Paul Wolfe leased land from the Carmichaels. With his partner, Fred Whitton (Whitton St), he built the Gate Theater. The theater had five hundred seats. When World War II was over, Paul sold his intrest in the theater to his partner Fred Whitton. In 1954, Martin Rogers with three of his friends rented the old theater building and turned into a recreational spot with pool tables and pinball machines. Tony Shaieb subleased the building from Martin Rogers and operated it as a pool room and restuarant from 1956 until 1957 when the place burned down.. Soon after, Shaieb bought the property from the Carmichaels, it was without a roof for many years. In 1962 Shaieb put a roof on the building and remodeled the interior and opened for business as a playland arcade and converted it into the Smoke Shop. Photo courtesy The Henry Hauser Museum.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

The Sorry Gulch Saloon....

....building was built in the 1940s by/for the Carmichaels. It was as a blacksmith shop, a stable and a storage barn with dirt floors. The building's walls were made of poured concrete, fifteen inches thick. Paul Wolfe (Wolfe Street) bought the building in the early 50s and made it into The Bent Elbow Cocktail Lounge and opened in 1954. In 1960 the building was sold to Virgil Hammons and changed it to Virgil's V.O. Steak House. In the 70s it was the Monte Vista Restaurant and Lounge. In 1977, Elesica Dawn and Jason Stone bought the property. "Lee and I were in full partners in the venture" and named the bar "The Sorry Gulch Saloon". A short time later the name was changed to Ceaders. "We did that on our own (name change), as we were at a point we wanted to try a new direction at the time". In 1980, the name was changed back to The Sorry Gulch Saloon.

Friday, June 14, 2013

A&W Root Beer ........

....opened on July 5, 1958. Loved those frosted mugs of their famous root beer. Top photo courtesy 1961 Sierra Vista Directory. The July 1, 1958 ad announcing their Grand Opening, courtesy The Gateway Times.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

June 1959

Mr. A.J. Bronstein didn't just build the SFDIT, he also built the 24 unit apartments next to the theater, (the apts behind McDonalds on Fry Blvd), The Sierra Motel and Apartments. Today, the apts are Pueblo Apts.
On June 1959, Mr Bronstein opened the Sierra Swimming Club. It offered a large 133 foot pool. Courtesy The Gateway Times.

The Famous Green Top...

...a page from the book- FORT HUACHUCA The story of a frontier post, by Cornelius C. Smith Jr. :
"Notwithstanding the fact that post officials did everything possible to keep soldiers entertained and happy at Fort Huachuca, soldiers exercised the age-old perogative of looking for diversion and comfort off base. Adjoining Ft. Huachuca was a small clusters of buildings named Fry, described by the Post Commander, Col. Hardy, as a 'small rather sordid town.' As the post grew with the influx of soldiers from other army establishments, so did Fry."
"It became a boom town of tents and ramshackle buildings filled with prostitutes and sleazy bars. Some post officials compared Fry with Tombstone in the latter's heyday, but noted that Fry was probably tougher. The place was a 'natural' for trouble. Brawls were frequent and knifings were not uncommon."
"Post commander Col. Hardy then interested a black entrepreneurial group in Chicago in establishing an amusement center in the small town of Fry. The place was designed by the noted black architect, Paul Williams, of Los Angeles, and because of its domed oval roof (covered with green asphalt roofing) it was dubbed by the soldiers the "Green Top". It opened its doors in March 1943, costing the government about $100,000 for construction. A handsome mural entitled, 'New Peace With Victory' was painted by William E. Scott, a Chicago artist. The mural ran for some distance behind a bar 120 feet long, one of the longest in the country at that time. (After doing more research, this article is not entirely correct. There were 7 murals displayed through out the 6400 sq ft building.) Rumor has it, that World Heavyweight Boxing Champ Joe Louis Barrow was a silent partner at the GT. No hard liquor was served, but the place was generally filled with soldiers drinking beer. Consumption of beer at the 'Green Top' amounted to about two-and-half (train) carloads of draft beer monthly."
"Oddly, a portion of the Green Top was used as living quarters for some 25 black officers and their wives. The space had been designed for use by employees, but so critical was the housing situation that rooms were assigned to division personnel rather than Green Top workers."

Quoting Mr. Jack Sabin, who moved to Sierra Vista in 1954, from an Oral History interview in 2005 says about the Green Top, "Just prior to reopening the Fort in the '50s there, the Green Top Cafe was in there, the Green Top building burnt down. That was the building Joe Lewis supposedly had built for the troops. It was a big building, it was just 1x4s and tarpaper on the outside."

The domed Recreation Center building burnt down on January 7, 1955. Roy Brockbank acquired the property and built a shopping center on the same location.
In the up coming years, The Green Top Apartment building was rebuilt twice, the third time it burned, it was demolished. 1963 McLellan's was built on that same location. Today, that same building at 256 W. Fry Blvd. is vacant.

Check this out-

*Early 1900s Outside of the main gate, to the north and alongside what is now Garden Avenue and Highway 90, there was a row of small wooden shacks (cribs) connected by one roof overhead. The structures were all painted white, and became known what the military referred to as "White City." The homesteaders and "dry landers" referred to the cribs as "sporting houses" and they were off-limits to all newcomers.
* February 1955 Tony Giacoma, manager of Geronimo Theater submitted plans to build a drive-in theater which opened on July 29, 1955.
*1955 The Huachuca Herald printed their first newspaper edition on October 7.
*1956 Stanley Wenc started construction on Stanley's Apts. on Garden and Wilcox. Mr. Wenc was issued the first building permit from the newly incorporated city.
*1956 El Rancho Roller Rink held their Grand Opening in November. Built by Roy Brockbank Enterprise for $200,000.
*1957 Virginia and Joseph Hilb built and operated the Dairy Queen on Fry Blvd..
*1957 The El Coronado Lanes was built by Roy Brockbank Enterprise for $250,000. Grand Opening was held in April.
*1957 Sierra Family Drive-in Theater was built.
*1958 The Gateway Times printed their first edition newspaper on April 24.
*1961 Highway 92, the street which extended east from the
main gate of the fort, and later, as a result of a naming contest, was named Buena Highway was changed in 1961 when councilman Louis Broitman recommended to the city council that the main thoroughfare be re-named Fry Boulevard in honer of Erwin Fry. After a discussion concerning the matter, the council voted in favor of changing the name from Buena
Highway to Fry Boulevard.
*1962 Halloween party was held at the "El Rancho Roller Rink" for the first time.
*1965 The first traffic light was installed on Fry Blvd and North Ave. The cost of a traffic light that year was $12,452, installed. The city's share: $5,820. The state paid the balance.
*1967 The Huachuca Herald merged with (bought out) The Gateway Times.
*1968 As the city grew Sierra Vista had three traffic lights installed: Garden/Fry, North Ave/Fry and Carmichael/Fry.
*Dec. 25,1971 Geronimo Theater's auditorium was gutted by fire, destroying the indoor seating area. (Note: before the auditorium was built, they parked a school bus on the last row, where kids sat in the bus and watched the movie).
MORE TO COME