Description

Archaeological Excavations of the Hooper Warehouse, the Tucson Sampling Works, and the Southern Pacific Railroad Clubhouse, Historic Block 95, Tucson, Pima County, Arizona (TR2009-8) (PDF)

Historic Block 95 is located in downtown Tucson at the northeastern corner of North 4th Avenue and Toole Avenue. The block was developed shortly after the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in March 1880. William Hooper & Company constructed a liquor warehouse and the Southern Pacific Railroad an icehouse. The Hooper warehouse was converted into the Tucson Sampling Works, an ore assaying business, which operated from 1887 to 1901. The Southern Pacific Railroad demolished the assay works and constructed a Clubhouse for employees in 1906. The Clubhouse was open until 1922, after which the building became the railroad superintendent’s office until the mid-1960s. Other railroad-related buildings were located nearby, including a washroom where employees could use the restroom and shower.

Archaeologists explored Historic Block 95 in the Fall of 2009, uncovering building foundations, outhouse pits, and ore waste pits. The block was designated AZ BB:13:809 (ASM). Information recovered allowed research questions to be explored on railroad architecture, changing Tucson lifeways in the late nineteenth century, sanitation, diet, and ore assaying.