Hello All,
Here's an excerpt from a note sent in by the ever-vigilant Les:
"As you are no doubt aware, the east end of the Amphi shopping center has
been demolished and will be replaced with -- drum roll, please --
Wal-Mart.
The good news is that when I biked past today, the period
"Amphi Center" sign was still up, as was the sign that used to be for
the Chinese restaurant at the west end of the strip.? It looks like the
Chinese restaurant sign used to rotate, but was immobilized presumably
to accommodate that dopey fake Mission-style tile awning facade.
Are either of these unique enough to warrant historic landmark sign status?
Having
a big box economic bloodsucker on that property is bad enough, but
losing the signs would be adding insult to injury.? In my not-so-humble
opinion. ;^)
The center itself is pretty interesting, with a
walk-through corridor (near the west end, leading north from the parking
lot) to a barber shop and angular canopy suggesting that customers were
expected to circulate more than just to and from their veehickles."
Carlos replies:
Thanks Les,
Amphi Shopping Center on the northeast corner of 1st and Fort Lowell has always been one of my favorites in a humble sort of way.
Brief tangent - Steve at Amphi was my favorite barber until he retired in the 90's.? No one else knew how to cut my duck-tail. Not many barbers remember how.? I asked around and ended up at Gibson's.? Johnny admitted he couldn't cut a DA, but his man Marv remembered how.? Marv cut my hair until we lost him to Alzheimers.? Now I go to Red at Buddha's.? Red is a genius with scissors, and used to play in a country-western band around town, but that's another topic.
Back to Amphi, I've heard that the shopping center was a big deal when it opened in the late 1950's.? At that time, Amphi would have had the furthest north supermarket and department store on 1st Avenue, serving the growing northwest side of Tucson, as well as catering to the Foothills subdivisions, which were designed with no shopping.? I looked all over for period photos of Amphi when there was a brief but futile attempt to persuade the developers to renovate the buildings instead of tearing them down.
Yes, both the signs you mention are potentially historic, each for their own reasons.? I assure you that the only reason the signs haven't already been demolished is that the developers know that new signage with that same height, square footage, and setback would be totally illegal today.? The signs are still in jeopardy, so thanks for the reminder.
Everyone please feel free to post a memory of Amphi Shopping Center if you used to shop there.? Some of you commented on this back in 2011 and 2012, but it's okay to repeat yourself once every 5 years or so, right?? Don't make me get out my old City Directory.
Thanks,
Carlos
