There's an? interesting thing about Crescent Newstand and their sign saying "since 1908" and the 100 year celebration in 2008.? I got to know the current owner of stores a few years ago when I lived off Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon.? They have a store in the shopping center where Big Lots is located.? I told him that I did research and survey's and he asked me to write up a little something for him.? Here's the timeline from what I remember from my notes.
Crescent Tobacco started out in I think 1902, not 1908, at the corner of Pennington and Stone, where the Montgomery Ward's/Walgreens/Currently Roy Place Building used by the architecture dept at UA.? The original building held many businesses, including a dental office.? There are a few photos of it at the historical society.? The business moved
to Congress street (can't remember the address, but just a bit off from where it is now).? I'm not sure if it was across the street or on the same side because the addresses changed sides of the street (odd on one even on the other, now the other way around) because of the change in where the center of town was located.? Mr. Ahrens believes it was always on the south side of the street, and I'm sure he knows what he's talking about since he lived here and I didn't, and it may have been around the early 60's when they made that odd/even change.? Anyhow, there were a few interesting (and I mean "interesting"!) owners over the years until I think the 70's or 80's.? Then the store location and "type" were bought, the person who bought it didn't actually buy the business itself, he wanted to make a few changes in what was sold, so he really bought the store, not "Crescent" (I think it was called Smoke Stand or Cigar Stand, something like
that).? So the "new" business was only about 20 years old when the current owners purchased it.? But if you go back ALL the way, it was OLDER than 100 years!? The owner got a big kick out of that since the sign was now kind of off.? But its close enough!
To the person who asked if John Cramer was from Bisbee, no, he came to Tucson? as a baby from the mid-westand luckily for me remembers a lot about the later 60's, 70's and 80's buildings.? We actually "met" over the internet (not on a dating site) because of my researching an old Mr. Quick that was on S. 6th.? He found something I had written up on a website, almost 2 years after I wrote it, and we connected through there.? We're getting married in September!? Too bad we couldn't have the wedding at Mr. Quick, but if we had a lot more money we'd be restoring the cool old sign!
Any other questions about buildings or characters, get in
touch!
