Black Heritage Tour: #11, Levin's Park
Gloria L. Smith, in the tour guide, describes Levin's Park thusly:
11. Levins Park is located near the railroad tracks today and only the most vague evidence can be found of its existence, at Alameda and Broadway. (Vacant lot undergoing construction in 1985)
Now, already we've got problems, since Alameda and Broadway don't cross.
This took a great deal of research to track down, with the assistance of the helpful people at Tucson's main library reference desk. But eventually we determined that Levin's park was located about here:
This is the corner of Granada and Congress. The park was located just northwest of this corner. The building there now is an Arizona state office building, which of course nearly led to me being arrested for photographing it -- but that's a story for another time.
For now, let's talk about Levin's Park.
Levin's Park was one of the focal points of early Tucson entertainment. In the context of the Black Heritage Tour, Smith draws attention to the park as the site where Banjo Dick would play after he got off work at The Fish House:
Levins Park that Banjo Dick strolled to is located near the railroad tracks today and only the most vague evidence can be found of its existence. It used to be a popular spot, one that held a dance area, a parade platform, and a host of other recreational places. Many military bands used to play here.
Levin's Park was operated by an early Jewish settler in Tucson, Alex Levin, who came from Bahn, Prussia. Author Harriet Rochlin's web site on Pioneer Jews has this to say about the Levin family:
Another mixed-faith southwestern family grew out of the union of Alex Levin, born in Bahn, Prussia and Zenona Molina, of Sonora, Mexico. The Levins were among the first families to settle in Tucson after the Civil War.
Levin, a brewer, foresaw demand for a good, cold lager in that extremely arid climate. An audacious entrepreneur and impresario, in 1869 he started Levin’s Park and made of it a municipal landmark. The three-acre entertainment center eventually included a restaurant, dance pavilion, theater and opera house, riding stables, an archery range and other recreational facilities. During its heyday, it was the site of every important social and communal event in Tucson.
Some descendants of this energetic, imaginative, and in the end Catholic, couple, made names in the theatrical and musical world: violinist Natalie (Levin) EchavarrÕa and singer-actress Luisa(Ronstadt) Espinol.
Yes, it is that same Ronstadt family, by the way -- Alex and Zenona's daughter Sara was the first wife of Fred Ronstadt; when Sara died, he remarried Lupe Dalton, and their granddaughter is Linda. The Ronstadts have been been major players in Tucson's history since the 1880s.
An article by the Tucson Citizen reports that not everyone was pleased with Levin's park, which included a brewery.
Levin, a native of Bahn, Prussia, was lauded in the April 1, 1876, Arizona Citizen thusly:
"The Park Brewery establishment and surrounding grounds, belonging to Mr. A. Levin, although a purely private enterprise, is a great adornment and a credit to Tucson, and for natural and artificial attractions, without doubt stands unrivaled in this Territory."
By way of contrast, move forward eight years to June 1884 to a commentary in the Arizona Daily Star:
" 'The Park' under its management has outlived its usefulness ... the nightly consorting of the vile and the vicious within its precincts, has made its name the synonym of iniquity."
Makes one wonder if the two newspapers are even talking about the same establishment.
[...]
Historian C.L. Sonnichsen described Levin as a "fat, jolly German" who liked to entertain his friends with good food and drink. He was born March 19, 1834. He arrived in Tucson in 1869, and in partnership with J. Goldtree launched the Pioneer Brewery.
He bought out Goldtree's interest in 1870, and purchased Wheat's Saloon, arranging for music and dancing. The same year, he took over the Hodges Hotel on Main Street. Those enterprises financed his establishment of the three-acre park "west of town" and "at the end of Pennington."
Over the years he added a dance hall, restaurant, an opera house that would seat 2,000, a shooting gallery, archery range, an icehouse, a bath house, riding stables and a bowling alley.
When the first Southern Pacific train made its grand entry into Tucson on March 20, 1880, (causing consternation among local officials by arriving an hour ahead of schedule), Levin's Park was the site selected for a welcoming banquet.
Today, there's no sign of Levin's Park; I wasn't even able to locate one of the near-ubiquitous historical markers that sprinkle downtown.
Instead, a shiny office building, owned by the State of Arizona, sits in the approximate area that Banjo Dick used to play.
One suspects that very few musicians stroll into the covered courtyard of the state office building.
At least, without being threatened with arrest.
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