Black Heritage Tour: #5, Mrs. Lee's Home
So sayeth the tour:
5. The site of Mrs. Lee's Home was located on the northwest corner of Stone and University.
Sadly, Mrs. Lee's first name is as lost to us as her home; Gloria Smith does not record it, nor does Harry Lawson who draws on the work of James Yancey, who wrote a 1933 masters thesis at University of Arizona on Tucson black history. Lawson writes:
Yancey (1933) reports that a Mrs. Lee came to Tucson in the middle of the 1890s from Phoenix and reopened the dining room at the Orndorff hotel which she ran exclusively for Whites. She had successfully operated a "Whites only" cafe in Phoenix in the 1880s. According to Yancey the San Xavier, brought in 10 Negroes from Kansas City, Missouri to serve as table waiters in their dining room.
The In The Steps of Esteban site reports that Mrs. Lee's cafe "received the patronage of the best people in Tucson."
The location of Mrs. Lee's home is now a large apartment complex, Entrada Real, occupied by students attending the university.
Here are a few more pictures from the site of Mrs. Lee's home.
The head of the neighborhood organization for the area, Dunbar/Spring (of which you'll hear more later) doesn't care for Entrada Real:
Barbara Bixby, president of the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood west of Stone Avenue, is highly critical of a project somewhat similar to that proposed at Campbell and Sixth Street.
"This is a disaster and it has been disgusting," Bixby says of the 231-bedroom Entrada Real apartments at Stone and University Boulevard. "They have huge parties where the parking lot becomes a mosh pit. The negative impacts are extraordinary.
"The City Council needs to pay attention," she adds. "This willy-nilly 'let's develop' attitude is wrong-headed," for existing neighborhoods. "There are all kinds of ways to do creative infill, but this idea of packing college kids onto a property is crazy."
But critics contend the plan doesn't recommend enough on-campus undergraduate student housing, which could help diminish problems that arise between permanent neighborhood residents and young, transitory college students.
"We've seen a huge increase in student rentals all around the university," says Barbara Bixby, of the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood west of Stone Avenue. Bixby complains that student complexes like the Entrada Real Apartments in her area as well as student-occupied single-family homes destabilize neighborhoods.
"There is no cohesion or sense of community, and it is really devastating," says Bixby, who thinks more students should be housed on campus.
The mosh pit.
Entrada Real gets some low marks from residents, too.
Reviewed:
If you like drinking and smoking and not being considered a person but just another rent payment by management, you will love Entrada Real. If, however, you intend to actually be a student and keep up with your academics, this is the last place you would want to live. There are parties nearly every night of the week, the Stone and University location is only a quarter mile from a busy set of train tracks and only half a mile from I-10. Even when other residents aren't being loud, there is noise. The is the most heinous living experience I have ever endured.
Reviewed:
Entrada Real overcharges for everything, especially fees at the beginning and at the end. You will not get much of your security deposit back because they charge for every little thing, even if it didn't really need to be fixed. This apartment complex is always loud, and the ceilings and floors are so thin that you can always hear your neighbors. An apartment at this complex costs so much more than it's worth.
And here's the good reviews...
If you don't mind calling the cops on your neighbors to get parties broken up, this place can be nice.
THe place ----in rocks!! Hot girls, hot girls and yes, more hot girls! Lots of alcohol, a swimming pool and yes, you guessed it, more hot girls! Oh yeah, the hot girls like to give it up too!
I once drove home drunk from Frog and Firkin' after happy hour in under 2 minutes, easily clearing my 3 minute rule in regards to returning home from a bar.
Plus, University is very straight. Stop signs optional.
Charming, huh?
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