The Laundry Building

Laundry building
The laundry building on the north side of 811 East First, circa 1910. This is not a
clear picture but is of historic interest. The woman in the dark dress is sitting on a metal
bed that has a striped cloth bedspread. The young man dressed in suit and tie is sitting
on a bench. Above the head of the woman in the white dress is a spot of light caused
by an opening in the pepper tree. The privet hedge is to the right. TKM
laundry building 80 years later
80 years later (1990), the same scene. The porch was added to the Laundry Building
and later this porch was enclosed. The hedge and pepper tree are gone; in place
of the pepper tree a hackberry bush has become a tree. The back of the duplex that
was my family home can be seen. This picture was taken in January 1990. Friday,
May 25, 1990, the Laundry Building was smashed, scooped up and hauled away. PPS
Man on hammock
Man on a hammock was taken with the photographer facing south. The metal bench is similar
to one that was in the patio at the apartments in 1989. The Marshall's black dog follows Tom
around and appears in many pictures. TKM
Same area 80 years later
The same place in July 1994. The Santa Catalina Apartments in 1990s were carefully
restored, a welcome improvement. The neighborhood has changed; the hedge is gone
as are the homes from First Street to Third (University). On the south side of that street
is the Geronimo Hotel, built in 1929 and, remodeled to restaurants, stores and offices;
south of this is Coronado Hall, a dormitory on Fifth Street. Many of the buildings from
University Boulevard to Second Street were bought and demolished in the 1980s by the
Marshall Foundation who planned to have a Scottsdale developer build a multi-story
dormitory. It was not built and the lots now have a "For Sale" sign. Houses from Second to
First Streets are gone; the University and the Arizona Historical Society now use this land for
parking lots. PPS

 

811 E 1st Street
My favorite photogrpah of 811 East First. To the right are the pepper tree and wooden
building referred to as the Laundry. The south end had the one-room appartment
that became a storage room. On foreground lot, in twenty years, will be build the
duplex that will become our family home. TKM

The last, and third, year she taught Louise was Professor of Ancient and Modern Languages. The next year she was to teach German as she had at the University of Denver nine years previously. Her schedule was listed in the proposed catalogue, but she had built her home, bought lots, built several houses and would soon build the Santa Catalina apartments.

Income from rentals and from money loaned for mortages was used to give financial help to some of the young women students. She had come to know the women students and learned of some of their problems when she was in charge of North Hall. There were few sources of money for scholarship help of young women at that time and she was intense in her belief a woman should have a chance for a good education. She decided to devote her entire life to her real estate ventures and use the profit for charitable purposes. Besides owning and managing property she made loans on buildings and also many personal loans. There was considerable bookkeeping involved in her business ventures.

She needed help with the maintenance of the rental property. Tom Marshall had been in her beginning Spanish class in the fall of 1901 as a freshman student. She had noticed Tom was entirely self-supporting and earned money doing chores for the university; she decided to employ him to do the work involved with the upkeep of rental property. Professor Foucar had become a full-time business woman, this represented a change in her life.

There would be another change in her life. On Wednesday August 24, 1904 she and Thomas Keith Marshall were married by Henry Easter the Rector of St. Clement's Episcopal Church in El Paso. One witness signed the marriage service book. Later her mother sent out wedding announcements.

View of campus 1903
A view of campus about 1903. This is the view a resident of the Santa Catalina
apartments would have had when walking to campus. Photograph taken on the site
of the Arizona Historical Society building. From left: University entrance gate at Second
Street, the President's house and row of cottages, Manual Training Building, Old Main.
The dirt road is Second Street. The barbed-wire fence encloses the campus. Photo
courtesy Special Collections, University of Arizona Library. FB

 

 

 

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