Photos: Speedway Boulevard in Tucson through the years
These archive photos highlight the buildings, businesses and views of the famous Tucson street from the 1950s-80s.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Once dubbed America’s “ugliest street” by Life magazine is Speedway Boulevard looking east from Alvernon Way . photo taken by: Jose Galvez December 15, 1977.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Sitting in the Oldsmobile is Beverly Smith Hansen (McClung), a 41 year-old, mother, model and artist. This Blakely's Service Station was on East Speedway near Kiddyland Amusement Park. The photo was used for an advertisement in the late 1950s.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
What is that contraption at the counter? It's called a cash register in this Sept. 1982 photo inside the McDonald's Restaurant at Speedway and Campbell.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Work crews remove the infamous "hump" from the middle of Speedway Blvd., on September 12, 1957.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
The Empress, 3832 E. Speedway, shown in 1988, had been in operation since 1971 and was Tucson's longest-operating adult store.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Bill Rauh Sr. owned Wilson's Bakery at the northwest corner of East Speedway and North Park Ave. in the early 1950s. Bill at one time made a promotional cake for Pet Milk, canned milked, and Softasilk, a brand of flour, as they tried to break the record for the world's largest cake Wilson's was one of three bakeries in Tucson at the time. Bill made wedding cakes for all six of his kids.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Consumers East Speedway Market. 1953
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
An undated photo of the Dorado Country Club on East Speedway, east of Wilmot Road while under construction. Tanque Verde Road cuts diagonally across the photo towards the Pantano Wash. The 18 hole executive length course was originally designed by Ted Robinson, ASGCA, the Dorado golf course opened in 1970.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Swank western layouts like this one at Tanque Verde Guest Ranch (now Tanque Verde Ranch) at the end of East Speedway Blvd. were a big magnet for winter visitors in 1965.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
The Speedway Blvd "Hump" in 1953.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
The $1 million in bond funds recommended for street lighting would put lights like these on East Speedway on about 20 miles more of busy arterial streets in 1965.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
This 1922 photo shows the empty desert stretches out beyond the 40-acre University of Arizona campus. The buildings identified are (1) Engineering College, built in 1919; (2) Old Main, built in 1891; and (3) Cochise Hall, a dormitory built in 1922. Today the campus has expanded to 180 acres from Park Avenue area to Campbell Avenue. Speedway cuts diagonally across the pictures. The intersection of Speedway and Campbell is marked.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
The Orielly Chevrolet Used Car lot, on 3313 E Speedway Blvd., had plenty of lights to display their vehicles on July 31, 1972. El Rancho Market grocery store and the Thom McAn shoe store is visible in the background.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Children bite the ice at Iceland, 5515 E. Speedway Blvd., in 1985.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
A birthday appears to be underway at Kiddyland, 3943 E Speedway near Alvernon on Dec 1962. In the era before television Sam and Ruth Cohen opened Kiddyland in 1949 and operated the playland for children until 1958. They had a Ferris wheel, roller coaster, train, cars on two-and-a-half acres. By 1962, Luverne Hicks took over the operation and had 10 mechanical rides and for a flat rate of $11.85 a birthday party of eight could be entertained with cake, ice cream, party favors, and eight rides apiece. At the time of the 1962 article, Hicks had hoped to move the operation to what was then, Randolph Park. Apparently, it did not work out.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
The 150-room Plaza International Hotel on the corner of North Campbell Avenue and East Speedway Boulevard, close to the University of Arizona, nears completion on March 18, 1971.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
The new Gil's Chevron Service Station at 203 E Speedway on the northeast corner at North Sixth Avenue was open for business in March 1968. The photo is looking toward the southeast.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Interstate 10 under construction at Speedway Blvd. in October, 1958.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Speedway Blvd looking east from Alvernon Way in Tucson, ca. 1980. Note the Showcase Cinema at left. It's now The Loft Cinema.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Night traffic along East Speedway east of North Country Club looking east on July 31, 1972.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Speedway Boulevard, Tucson, looking east from near County Club Road in December, 1957. Note the Ryan-Evans Drugs on the corner, at right, originally owned by the Martin family. George A. Martin Sr. established a pharmacy inside the walls of the Tucson Presidio in the 1880s. His sons expanded the business to cover Tucson.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Pedestrian underpass under construction under Speedway and Warren on the University of Arizona campus on Sep. 11, 1990
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
Interstate 10 (reffered to as the "Tucson freeway" in newspapers at the time) under construction at Speedway Blvd. in the early 1960s. By Summer 1962, completed freeway sections allowed travelers to go from Prince Road to 6th Ave. The non-stop trip to Phoenix was still a few years away.
Speedway Boulevard in Tucson
The bar at the Twin Flames, 5150 E. Speedway, in Oct. 1955, which featured a landscape painting behind the bar and what looks to be a pretty good selection of liquor. It's now a car wash.
Rick Wiley
Photo editor
July 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the famous Life magazine article, "Speedway Boulevard: The Ugliest Street in the U.S." Here's the story of how Tucson's main business thoroughfare earned the notorious nickname.
As a private defense attorney, Sean Chapman argued a string of high-profile cases in recent years. In 2018, for example, jurors sided with his defense of Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz, who was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder after shooting a Mexican teen through the border fence.
Citing uncertainty over COVID-19, Tucson school district leaders have decided that more than 70,000 children will kick off the school year at home.
Tucson's cluttered Speedway Boulevard was shamed in two articles in Life magazine 50 years ago. Later, former Mayor Jim Corbett Jr. said he never spoke to anyone from the magazine.
While Speedway's teen-enticing essence and nostalgic character may endure — what a 1983 local headline called "Tucson's lane for the fast life" — there were many attempts to change the street's appearance over the decades, until certain improvements finally did take hold.
Less than half of the 894 miles of city roads targeted under the 2017 plan have been repaved, but officials said it’s all going to plan.
Architect Josias Joesler established a style that became emblematic of Tucson in the early 20th century.