An effort is underway to preserve and repurpose a once-popular 1950s-era motel in the Miracle Mile Historic District of Tucson.
Located at 127 W. Drachman Street, the Tucson Inn was built in 1953 and is valued by historians as a strong example of the Googie and Modernist architectural style that was so prevalent in the post-World War II southwest.
With its front sun ray-bursting-skyward neon sign, the building has for decades been one of the most iconic and visible structures of its kind in Tucson, serving as a motel that slowly fell on hard times before being purchased in early 2018 by Pima Community College.
The school has said that it would like to turn the structure into offices for its education tech services program, as well as providing space for an innovation center and diversity program, among other uses.
Now members of the school’s governing board have voted in favor of putting out a request for a developer to come up with a plan for saving and repurposing the structure.
Because PCC may not have enough funds to take on the repurposing project itself, it is thought that a private developer could do that, obtaining the building on a lease basis.
The Tucson Inn was built at a cost of around $500,000 and underwent a $100,000 renovation a decade later. At the time of the motel’s 1953 opening, the Tucson Citizen made note of its 24-hour coffee shop, flagstone lounging terrace, and rooms featuring “record music controlled in the central office.”
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay