Archaeological Investigations of Tucson Block 94: The Boarding House Residents of the Hotel Catalina Site

Summary

Historic Block 94 was a scene of controversy in the late 1980s as the City of Tucson planned the demolition of the historic Catalina Hotel. An elevated highway was to pass the block, and the Catalina Hotel was in its path. This building served as housing for many of the town's indigent population, and its inexpensive rooms and sparse surroundings were much better than life on the streets. Advocates wanted to know what was to become of these people.

At first, the preservationists failed. The Catalina Hotel was not structurally strong enough to sustain a movement of the entire building to a new location farther back on its lot, and so it was demolished. However, archival research indicated that subsurface archaeological resources might be present on the property. After the hotel's demolition, archaeologists from Desert Archaeology tested and excavated portions of Lots 2 and 3 of Block 94.

The uncovered features related to the pre-1920s occupation of the block. The first structures appeared on the property in the late 1880s and early 1890s, doubtlessly spurred by Tucson's growth after the arrival of the railroad. Block 94 became home to a long series of working-class individuals, most of whom were employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Two trash-filled pits yielded cheap ceramics, low quality/high quantity meat cuts, and other discarded items. The artifacts were found to date from about 1915 to 1920, and despite Prohibition, contained many alcoholic beverage bottles. Documentary research suggested that the block was exclusively lower-income Euro-American for this time period, and few non-Euro-American artifacts were recovered. Many of the women living on the block were single mothers and were employed as boarding-house keepers prior to World War I. After the war, employment opportunities grew for women as Tucson experienced changes sweeping over the nation, The period following the war also saw an increase in the number of people living in the residences; the crowded conditions would be deployed today. The Catalina Hotel was built around 1929, and the structures on the remainder of Lots 2 and 3 were gradually torn down. In 1990, the Catalina Hotel was the sole surviving structure.

Community reaction finally prevailed, and in 1992 a replica of the Catalina Hotel was built, once again serving the lower-income individuals who have traditionally made Block 94 their home. This study serves to document a set of people who are not well-known because their contemporaries rarely wrote about the lives of lower-income individuals. Archaeology is one method for reclaiming the history of these people.

This report chronicles the archaeological excavation of Lots 2 and 3 of historic Block 94. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the volume, discussing past archaeological work in Tucson, and reviews the research questions that guided the study of the recovered artifacts. Documentary resources are detailed in Chapter 2, and the archaeological features are described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 provides data on artifacts recovered from Features 1 and 4, whereas Chapter 5 supplies information on food remains. Chapter 6 presents the conclusions reached in this study.

The name of the site, the Hotel Catalina site, reflects the original usage of the hotel's name. Over the years, however, it has become known as the Catalina Hotel. Either usage appears to be correct.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Desert Archaeology DAHA Resources   •
• Digital Archive of Huhugam Archaeology (DAHA)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Desert Archaeology, Inc.

Prepared By(s): Desert Archaeology, Inc.

Submitted To(s): City of Tucson

Record Identifiers

Contract No.(s): 346-90

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