"Al" Condron, A Man of Vision

Albert Harlan Codron
by Margret Alberta Condron Birmingham
Ck Out This Web Site That Is Dedicated To Al Condron
http://tucsonrodeoparade.com/index.htm

It was 1917 and my Dad had just graduated from the University of Arizona. He had accepted a job in Washington, DC with the United States Geological Survey when he met Mother. (Mabel Margaret Pearce, now deceased 1977). Two more different backgrounds there could hardly have been. She was a young woman raised in an affluent Eastern society, with a five-year-old son, and never been out of the eastern United States. Dad was a good looking, rugged Westerner, born during the mining boom in Leadville, Colorado. His father owned and operated ore hauling teams, and his mother was the town's most genteel young lady in spite of these differences in background, it was love at first sight for Morn and Dad and just a few weeks later they were married. They were to embark on an adventure that was partly Dad's dream and partly his conviction, that the sleepy pueblo of Tucson would one day be an important western metropolis.

During his college years 1912-1917, Dad had developed a passionate love for this young, but oldest city, and foresaw a time when Tucson would be important as a mecca for winter visitors, a land port of travel, a desert blooming with agriculture, history preserved, and a cultural center in this naturally beautiful part of the world.

When he arrived in Tucson for collage he found a room at Mrs. Drachman's Boarding House (later made famous in Rosemary Drachman Taylor's novel "Chicken Every Sunday.") From this location he was close to town and the one horse-drawn streetcar which took him to the campus Old Main, a few fledgling out buildings, a football field and The Birdcage. He later moved to the newly founded chapter of the S.A.E. Fraternity with their "house" being located at 3rd and East Stone Avenue where he was house manager. He played for four years nearly every position for the University of Arizona football team under Coach "Pop"McKale, basketball and track. Dad engineered the "A" on A Mt. and began the tradition of the freshmen whitewashing the "A." He also was student body president 1916 and upon graduation was awarded the first Freeman Medal ever given by the University of Arizona.

Well, obviously Dad had already begun to make a name for himself in Tucson and had certainly begun his love affair with it, so when a group of Tucson business men contacted him in 1920 to return to town and work on behalf of the passage of the "Open Workshop" amendment to the Arizona State Constitution, he was only too happy to accept. (Arizona is today one of the few states which still protects the "Open Workshop.")

Now, I cannot say that my Mother was quite as enthusiastic, because to her she was going to the "Wild and Wooly West," that was only a few short years away from Indian raids and where the train came through less than once a day. Quite a change for a born and bred Eastern girl. Her family bade her goodbye with a certainty that she would never be seen again.

Mother, Dad, Charles and Ona (my oldest sister now being part of the family) arrived in Tucson by train and went to stay with Dr. Watson in his lovely home on Main Street. Mother was pleasantly impressed to find there was refinement in Tucson! After dinner they drove down town to visit quarters on Stone Avenue which had been selected for Dad's office and much to Mother's consternation she thought she had truly come to the "Wild and Wooly West" when a night gunman came shooting down the street, the victim to fall almost at her feet. This was not a typical occurrence in Tucson at that time but Dad had some difficulty convincing Mother that such shootings were not a daily happening. I think she was tempted to pack up and hurry out of town but there was no train leaving. By the time there was, she had calmed down and had begun to view her new home a little more happily.

She did find some things new and different to her. Eggs were $1 each, water was sold by the barrel to those beyond the water lines, and the city boasted hitching posts on the main streets which were used regularly. Steinfeids was the main dry goods and grocery store, Jacome's sold clothing and dry goods. Porter's sold hardware and horse tackle and the Drachman Brothers were the leading land developers. Mother was happy to find that rattlesnakes (of which she had heard) were pretty well confining them-selves to the desert outside of town! Mother never had the same pioneer spirit as Dad and he therefore deferred to her wishes and did not homestead any land which was what most: Arizonians were eager to do at this time.

In 1922 Dad became Secretary of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce and this is when he began to set stepping stones toward dreams for Tucson come true. He built Mother a "little gray home in the West" at 935 North 7th Avenue and the family increased again when my sister Dorothy arrived. Babies were still born at home then and Nana Pearce threw caution to the wind and came to the "Wild West" to assist Mother. Much to Nana's surprise Tucson was becoming a city with many buildings, some streetcars, model T's, a Carnegie Library and the University of Arizona was expanding and was no longer out in the desert but was now at the edge of the city.

Dad had ideas for a wide variety of projects and boosted Tucson at every opportunity. He began work on two pet projects to "put Tucson on the map"_a transcontinental highway to pass through Tucson and even an airport for passenger service. The airlines were then carrying only mail, but through his efforts and those of Guy Monthan, Kirke Moore, and Morris Reid, this airport was begun.

In 1926 I joined the family arriving at the "Stork's Nest" on Main Street and we were well on our way to becoming an important part of Dad's team. This was the year he planned the first Fiesta de los Vaqueros Rodeo. Since funds were limited in those days, we kids all piled into the Essex and travelled around the state, to California and as far east as El Paso, tacking up posters on every post and bridge advertising the rodeo. You had to interest the cowboys to come in from the ranches as well as the public to attend. The "purse" for which the real ranch cowboys vied was derived from the "gate." Within a few years the sum of $600.00 was raised to relocate the Rodeo Grounds to South 6th Avenue, complete with box seats and bleachers. This was an incredible community effort. These "poster tacking" trips were great fun and Dad always made them educational as he wanted us to love the land the way he did. We visited Indian Ruins, old forts left from the Apache .Wars, ghost towns and ail the places of natural beauty. Dad was a veritable textbook on Southwestern history, geology, mining and agriculture. We got our lessons in the most interesting manner. Of course, there were times when Mother nearly despaired when Dad would bump out across the desert saying, "Now someday there will be a highway here." We saw all the choice recreation spots long before they were designated as such. To us children it was truly a great adventure. During this time Dad served on the State of Arizona Board of Commercial Secretary's, the creators of the publication "Arizona Highways" whose photography brought Arizona out for the world to see.