Murals from a mile away

Our previous post, Time Machine 1865-2014, was at a building labeled Safford Engineering / Technology Middle School, Building 1. Just west of there is a huge lawn in front of an older building called Safford K-8 Community School. The building has two murals. The big lawn between there and 13th Street wasn't a problem because I had my point-and-shoot camera with a 40x optical zoom lens. These photos are from 13th Street:

I was there on January 29, 2024.

Time Machine 1865-2014

Here's a mural on the wall at the west end, north side, of Safford Engineering / Technology Middle School, Building 1. It looks like the time machine may have taken what I think is the school mascot, a husky?, from 2014 back to 1865:

I time-jumped from today back to January 29, 2024😎to take this photo.

Next time we'll see a mural on the building next door.

Congress mural parade 3 of 3: 1002 W. Congress

Our last two posts (Congress mural parade 1 of 3: 910 W. Congress and Congress mural parade 2 of 3: 914 W. Congress) show murals on the southeast corner of Congress and Grande. The mural near the northeast corner is in our August 14, 2020 post "The Triumph of the Human Spirit". Today, the northwest corner: mural-covered Ashtanga Yoga, Latin restaurant La Chaiteria and plant-based kitchen tumerico.

We've already shown this half of the building in three posts:

• July 17, 2020: La Chaiteria, Part I
• July 21, 2020: La Chaiteria, Part II
• April 6, 2021: Ashtanga Yoga

Not much has changed. Here's the south side, along Congress, on May 5, 2024:

The east side, along Grande, has changed since our previous post. Now, a sign for La Chaiteria and tumerico stretch along the top of the wall above the murals:

(I was there early in the morning on May 5. I couldn't avoid the sun glare.)

Back on January 13, 2024, I stopped in at La Chaiteria and tumerico. Though we usually don't show murals indoors in restaurants and other places that aren't free to the public, I'll ignore our guideline for these:

Congress mural parade 2 of 3: 914 W. Congress

At the southeast corner of Grande and Congress, a couple of blocks west of Mercado San Agustin, is Menlo Home & Garden. (It's not Menlo Home Goods, which we saw last time in Part 1 of 3.) The west wall is covered with a mural of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Let's start with the mural in 2007 — from our December 31, 2007 post Virgin Videos?

Now to May 5, 2024:

This place is very much alive. Here's the same spot at sunset on January 13, 2024:

As you'll see below, in the series of photos from Google Maps Street View, the area shown above used to be closed. Also, the mural was tagged (!?!) in May 2018 or before and had been restored by April 2019:

January 2008

June 2011

May 2018: mural tagged

April 2019: mural restored

Next time, we'll cross the intersection to La Chaiteria, tumerico and Ashtanga Yoga.

Congress mural parade 1 of 3: 910 W. Congress

The intersection of Congress and Grande — a couple of blocks west of Mercado San Agustin — has murals on three of its corners. We'll see two of the corners in posts this week; the third/northeast corner has The Triumph of the Human Spirit at 941 W. Congress.

Both of the buildings at the southeast corner have a history of murals. This time, let's look at the former hardware store at 910 W. Congress. Now it's Menlo Home Goods. Our post dated September 13, 2022 — Parade of murals on 910 West Congress — shows a series of photos from October 2013 to April 2022. Today, we'll take a closer look at the mural painted sometime between February 2021 and April 2022:

The third photo (with OILCLOTH KITCHEN in the middle) is from May 5, 2024. I took the rest on January 13, 2024.

In the next post, we'll head next door to 914 W. Congress.

The Circus Academy

The Circus Academy (officially The Circus and Aerial Academy of Tucson, INC) has that mural over its storefront on the northwest corner of Speedway and Main.

There's more about this interesting place on their website, CircusAcademyTucson.com.

Southern Arizona Transportation Museum

 The two murals below are on the front of the museum facing Toole Ave.

                                  Tulley, Ochoa & Co.

By Bill Singleton.

Tully, Ochoa & Company was a freight line in early Tucson.  Railroads put them out of business.

                           Welcoming the new railroad to Tucson.

By Bill Singleton

Click on either photo for larger images (recommended).

Update by Jerry Peek (May 13, 2024): Bill Singleton's Facebook page has lots of photos of the murals in progress. Here's his three-minute video of the first panel from start to finish:



He's currently working on a third panel.

Update (July 13, 2024): Jerry met the artist as he was finishing the third panel. Bill told me a number of things about the history he designed in. For instance, the tents in the first panel were for the Chinese workers. The tents were moved along the tracks as work progressed:

In the second panel, the man holding the silver spike was Tucson's first Hispanic mayor (or maybe in the whole US?). The silver was from Tombstone:

Jerry took two more closeup photos, one of the first panel and the next of the second panel:

Update (December 6, 2024): Today's post Murals being made, part 83: Third mural at Southern AZ Transportation Museum shows the last of three mural panels.

Mural at midtown butterfly garden

In 2022, the Blenman-Elm Neighborhood Association opened the Jackie Kinman Butterfly Garden. The north side is a mural showing pollinators like birds, bats and butterflies:

(Fourteen years ago, there was a different mural here. Our January 10, 2010 post Mural in the mesquite shows it.)

The garden has paths, shade, and a bench to relax on. You can see more in today's post Jackie Kinman Butterfly Garden on the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog. (That second link leads to the blog's front page.)

Next, close-ups:

The artist's Instagram @maxie.adler has more of her work.

The park is at the northeast corner of Waverly Street and Treat Avenue. (If you want a street address, the park is near 2803 E. Waverly St. and 2807 E. Waverly St. GPS coordinates are 32°14'45.9"N, 110°55'51.3"W.)

Youth On Their Own administration building

Youth On Their Own is a Tucson nonprofit that helps homeless youth graduate from high school. They moved into a new headquarters building in 2023. There's more about the building and YOTO on this website page: yoto.org/yoto-has-a-new-home/. That page lists their address as 2525 N. Country Club, but the mural in this post is just south of 2509 N. Country Club.

Our June 23, 2020 post Youth On Their Own shows murals on what I think is their first location, near the southeast corner of Pima and Alvernon. It's since closed; everything has moved to the new location.

Along the south wall of 2509 is a long mural painted by Hannah Long; her Instagram is @whereoceansmeethb. The building used to be for Southwest University of Visual Arts, which (the YOTO page says) closed in 2019. Google Maps Street View shows a different mural there in February 2022. I also found the mural in a photo during April 2023. So this mural was painted sometime since April 2023, and before I took photos of this mural on January 13, 2024.

The photos below show the whole mural from the east side, nearest Country Club Road. Next are closeups of the mural from east to west:

The back wall (the western edge) has paint around the plain grey blocks:

Adios, Carniceria Don Juan II

On December 27, 2023, I noticed that the former Carniceria La Noria had become Carniceria Don Juan II. (A carniceria is a meat market. It often also has a restaurant inside.) I took the photos below.

Back on June 18, 2012, we showed a mural on Carneceria La Noria: Frida by Enuf.

This Google Maps Street View shows the front of Carniceria Don Juan II in January 2022, as it was about to open:



Carniceria Don Juan II had a new mural on its west side. I think that the man on the right is Don Juan (Don is a term of respect for a man) and the banner about tortillas for sale hides the business name:

A closeup, including a recipe for caldo de queso:

And the artist's signature… I'm guessing that 23 means 2023:

The Carniceria Don Juan Facebook page shows that as of February 5, 2024 the location is closed (negocio cerrado). I believe the origial location on 1924 S. 4th Avenue is still open; our September 20, 2019 post Tortilleria Don Juan shows one of the murals on front and has a link to a photo of another mural.

Update (July 29, 2024): A new Tucson Rodeo mural was added next to this mural sometime before today — but after I took the photos above on 12/27/2023. See today's post Carniceria Don Juan II una vez más.