Owls Club – First Location
Tucson, Arizona

Description: Owls Club (First)
Other Names: (1) Steinfeld Mansion, Albert Steinfeld house, Manning residence. (2) Tucson Community Development Program, Historic Areas Committee, Tucson Historical Sites (Tucson: author, 1969) page 150: designation as site #34
Address: 300 North Main Avenue
Type: fraternal: residence club for men
Original Client: Owls Club
Historic Inventory: part of the El Presidio Historic District, National Register number 76000379
Date: 1900
Condition: extant

Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Trost (for addition of ca. 1909)
Contractors: L. H. Manning
Dimensions and Orientation: two stories, facing east, 110 feet long and 72 feet wide (because of hillside site, only one story on North Main Avenue is above grade)
Budget/Cost: $13,000

Foundation: volcanic rock
Wall Materials: stucco over brick
Roofing Materials: Spanish tile
Other Materials Used:
Remodeling and Additions: addition by Trost & Trost, in the form of a small polygonal extension to the north, 1909 or earlier; restored 1979

Present Owner: Hickey & Sons, Green Valley, Arizona
Location of Drawings:
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Aultman A5292 and A5114; Arizona Historical Society, Tucson

Bibliography: (1) Marcus Whiffen, American Architecture since 1780; a Guide to the Styles (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The M. I. T. Press, 1969), pages 214 and 216
(2) Lloyd C. Engelbrecht, Henry Trost: the Prairie School in the Southwest, The Prairie School Review, volume VI, number 4 (Fourth Quarter, 1969), pages 10-13
(3) Trost & Trost, Architects (El Paso: Trost & Trost, 1907), pages 10, 13, 14, 23, 35, 42, 44, 47 and 48
(4) Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht, Henry C. Trost: Architect of the Southwest (El Paso: El Paso Public Library Association, 1981), pages 20-25
(5) Lloyd C. Engelbrecht, Trost in Tucson, Triglyph; a Journal of Architecture and Environmental Design (published by Arizona State University), number 2 (Spring, 1985), pages 28 and 29
(6) Prentice Duell, A Review of Modern Architecture in Arizona, The Western Architect, volume XXXI, number 6 (June, 1922), page 74 and plates 5, 6 and 7
(7) Janet Ann Stewart, The Mansions of Main Street, Journal of Arizona History, volume XX, number 2 (Summer, 1979), pages 206-[213]
(8) General Building Notes. Arizona, The Builder and Contractor (Los Angeles), volume XIV, number 356, January 2, 1902, page [1] (identifies the building as Mission style, and gives additional details.)
(9) Tucson Community Development Program, Historic Areas Committee, Tucson Historical Sites (Tucson: author, 1969) pages 286-289, site plan, date, description, history, photographic perspective view made after ornament was removed
(10) Homes and Grounds, volume I, number 11 (November, 1916), pages 336-337, photographic perspective view from the south, photographs of courtyard and of small side porch
(11) Arizona Daily Star May 24, 1900 page 1 ‘The Owl House’

Remarks: (1) Sculpture by Gustave Vierold in the spandrels of the arches had been removed long before the 1979 restoration and was not recreated.
(2) Since the restoration of 1979, part of the building serves at the home state office of United States Representative Morris K. Udall.
(3) Originally, there was a double parlor, a reception room, kitchen and pantry, and five bedrooms, each with a private bath. The basement consisted of servant’s quarters and storage rooms.
(4) November 26, 1977, Cernus Investment Group Ltd get final approval from city official to restore the building and saving from demolition. The American Legion, which owned the Steinfeld Home for 20 years, asked the city for permission to demolish the building, with is listed in the National Registry of Historical Places.
(5) Tucson Newspaper, February 2, 1978, U.S. chips in $45,000. to fix up Steinfeld House

The house was built in 1900 as a social club meeting place and bought in 1904 by Albert Steinfeld, who converted it to a home and added servants’ quarters and a landscape yard. It later became a Roman Catholic convent, and was sold in 1957 to the American Legion. The legion had threatened to demolish it because potential purchasers couldn’t afford to restore it as a residence. The City Council rezone the property to an office building.

The first floor of the building embraced eleven rooms. Double parlors 16 by 16 each. A large spacious dining room 32 by 16. In the dining room will be a pressed brick mantel reaching the ceiling. Paneled wainscoting will extend around the room to the heigh of seven feet. The ceiling sis beamed. The remainder of the building is in yellow pine with natural wood finish.

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.