Owls Club- Second Location
Tucson, Arizona

Description: Owls Club (second)
Other Names: Leo Goldschmidt residence
Address: 378 North Main Avenue, Tucson, Pima County, Arizona
Type: fraternal: residential club
Original Client: Owls Club
Historic Inventory: (1) part of El Presidio Historic District, National Register number 76000379
(2) Tucson Community Development Program, Historic Areas Committee, Tucson Historical Sites (Tucson: author, 1969) page 150: designation as site #31
Date: 1902
Condition: extant

Architect or Firm: Henry C. Trost
Associated Architect or Firm: Trost & Rust (Robert E. Rust)
Contractors:
Dimensions and Orientation: faces East; width: 49 feet, 4 inches
Budget/Cost: $10,000

Foundation:
Wall Materials: stucco over brick
Roofing Materials: flat
Other Materials Used:
Remodeling and Additions: An addition to the rear almost certainly was not designed by Trost. An extensive restoration of 1985 was completed by Robb Boucher, Villa of Dreams, Bisbee, for Collier Craft Development Co. Sculptural assistant to Boucher was Don Cox. Prior to the 1985 restoration the Owls Club had been vacant for many years, and had suffered damage from weather and vandals.

Present Owner: Collier Craft Development Co.
Location of Drawings: None known to exist
Location of Documentary Photographs: El Paso Public Library: Aultman file, A5101, A5780 and A5781

Bibliography: (1) Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, June 17, 1902, page [8]: The foundation for the two story building for the Owls, North Main Street, and south of S. M. Franklin’s residence, is finished.
(2) Growing Tucson, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, July 13, 1902, page [3]: The list of material improvements for 1902 includes the expenditures made by The Owls building, Main Street, in course of construction, complete, $10,000.
(3) Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, August 13, 1902, page [8]: The new Owls Building is now under roof. It is situated one block south of the present quarters, Main Street.
(4) Trost & Trost, Architects (El Paso: Trost & Trost, 1907), pages 16, 22, 24 and 33 (exterior and interior photographs)
(5) Prentice Duell, A Review of Modern Architecture in Arizona, The Western Architect, volume XXXI, number 6 (June, 1922), page 74 and plate 8 (exterior photograph)
(6) Lloyd C. Engelbrecht, Henry Trost: the Prairie School in the Southwest, The Prairie School Review, volume VI, number 4 (Fourth Quarter, 1969), pages 12-13 (descriptive text and exterior photographs)
(7) Lloyd C. and June F. Engelbrecht, Henry C. Trost: Architect of the Southwest (El Paso: El Paso Public Library Association, 1981), 24 and 25 (descriptive text and exterior photographs)
(8) Janet Ann Stewart, The Mansions of Main Street, Journal of Arizona History, volume XX, number 2 (Summer, 1979), pages [213]-216
(9) Lloyd C. Engelbrecht, Trost in Tucson, Triglyph; a Journal of Architecture and Environmental Design (published by Arizona State University), no. 2 (Spring, 1985), pages 29 and 30
(10) Pat Conner, Architect Gives a Hoot about Former Owls Club, The Arizona Daily Star, August 17, 1986, home section, pages 1 and 13, photographs, description of restoration, and argument for March 20, 1901, as the date of completion (the date of 1901 is actually too early)
(11) Lloyd C. Engelbrecht, The Second Owls Club, Tucson, Arizona, Restored, Triglyph; a Journal of Architectural and Environmental Design, (published by Arizona State University), no. 7 (Winter, 1988-1989), pages 26 and 27 (description of restoration by Robb Boucher and others, and photographs of facade before and after restoration, and a photograph of a detail of the facade as it originally appeared)
(12) Barbara Clarihew, Recasting the Art of Plaster, Preservation News; National Trust for Historic Preservation, June 1989, pages 14 and 15 (description of restoration, and photographs, including Robb Boucher in his Bisbee studio, and facade of Second Owls Club before and after restoration)
(13) Tucson Community Development Program, Historic Areas Committee, Tucson Historical Sites (Tucson: author, 1969) pages 278-281, site plan, date, history, photographic perspective view made after removal of portal ornament
(14) Weekly Journal-Miner (Prescott, Arizona) May 29, 1901, a mention of the club house

Remarks: The original ornament was probably by sculptor Gustave Vierold. Boucher received the 1987 Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation, individual category.

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.