The Farmer John Meats plant is best known for its sprawling mural — cowboys riding across a desert panorama featuring charging bulls and grazing cows, all along an industrial stretch of West Grant Road.
The mural was unharmed in a fire at the plant Sunday afternoon, but the blaze brought up a bigger point — the landmark plant's decline.
Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to a second-floor landing at the heart of the old plant. The cause of the blaze was arson, said Capt. Paul McDonough spokesman for Tucson Fire Department.
The fire started at multiple points, and matches were found near its remnants.
To McDonough and pretty much everyone else on the scene Sunday — firefighters and television reporters — the arson was symbolic of the building's descent into the throes of neglect.
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"It is like a landmark," said McDonough, a Tucson native. "It's definitely sad to see a building fall into this kind of state of nonuse and disrepair."
Since its closing in 2001, the building's windows have been blown out. Graffiti covers its walls.
"And that's not just the half of it," said Bill DeVinney, a resident of the Miracle Manor neighborhood just east of Farmer John. "Thieves have gotten inside and taken almost everything metallic they could swap to sell."
There are also numerous holes in the floors, which make it particularly dangerous, McDonough said.
Farmer John Meats opened the plant in 1962, with the purpose of supplying boneless beef to Los Angeles, according to archives.
A year later, Leslie Grimes painted the playful, pastoral setting on what was a slaughterhouse until 1969.
Farmer John began beef-grinding operations in 1990.
Most recently the plant made headlines in 2003 when there was talk about turning it into a honky-tonk bar — a development that would have torn the building down but preserved the wall. The deal fell through.
These days, the property is owned by San Diego-based Asset Builders Inc.
There is a power grid nearby and a number of automobile shops, and DeVinney, who has lived in the area for about 21 years, said he doubted the property could be restored. More likely, he said, it would be torn down and replaced by a warehouse. If that day comes, some hope the wall will stay.
"It's a shame," DeVinney said. "It's historic, and it lends character to the neighborhood."
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