Davis School
Tucson, Arizona
Description: Davis School
Other Names: Davis Bilingual Elementary School
Address: 500 W. St Mary’s Road, Tucson, Pima County, Arizona
Type: educational: school
Original Client: Tucson School Board
Date: 1901-1902
Condition: extanted
Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Robert E. Rust, Trost & Rust
Contractors: Doe & Woodward
Dimensions and Orientation: four classrooms, fifty foot tall bell tower, an office under the tower, a lobby capable of accommodating 200 persons in an assembly, and a basement with a wood room janitor’s quarters, and a hot air furnace
Budget –Cost: $9,000, with improvements of grounds, etc.
Foundation: stone
Wall Materials: brick
Roofing Materials: shingle
Other Materials Used:
Remodeling and Additions:
Location of Drawings: El Paso Public Library: (E-7): ink on linen three sheets, transverse section, front and side elevations, signed H.C.Trost ARCHT.
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Ponsford 500, photograph of exterior; Aultman A5387
Bibliography: (1) Tucson (Ariz.) News, The Builder and Contractor (Los Angeles), volume XX, number 462, January 2, 1902, page [1] (Tucson Star [Arizona Daily Star?] is cited as source; completion is expected for the Davis school about March 1st 1902; Trost & Rust are named as architects)
(2) Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, December 31, 1901, page [8]: Until the new Davis school is opened, March 1, the children who have been attending the Congress street school will go to the Holliday [sic] school.
(3) Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, December 21, 1901, number of seats described as about 300
(4) Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, January 22, 1902, page [1], budget
(5) Davis School, Tucson Daily Star, March 11, 1902, page [12], description of school, names of teachers, identification of contractor as Doe & Woodward, and H.C. Trost as architect.
Remarks: W.C. Davis arrived in Tucson in 1869 and established a successful hardware store. During his time in Tucson, Davis became fundamental in the forming the First National Bank of Tucson. He later served on the School Board in District 1 from 1872 until 1902.
In 1901 the Davis School building occupied on four acres of land and was purchased by school district from Miss Annie Hughes for the sum of $1,000. H.C. Trost was the architect and Doe & Wood served as the contracts for the school. The school had only five rooms and accommodated sixty pupils. There was two parallel entrances fronting the hospital road. A tall bell tower stood fifty feet high, rested between the two entrances. Office space was underneath the bell tower.
The school rooms were well light, ventilated and heated. A lobby outside the school rooms provided ample space for assemblies. From the lobby a double staircase leaded to the rear yard. The basement head the hot air furnace, wood room and janitor’s quarters.
Over the years several additions have been added.
Prepared for the El Paso Public Library by Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1990.