93-Year-Old Pima County Historic Courthouse Gets New Look
Renovated & Reborn By Christy Krueger
January 8th Memorial After several years of planning and renovations, the Pima County Historic Courthouse in downtown Tucson has a fresh face and a new, more comprehensive purpose. According to Pima County Facilities Director Lisa Josker, all public officials housed in the 93-year-old courthouse were moved to the nearby public services building in 2015. By early 2016, construction began on the historic building with a goal to convert it into a destination for both locals and visitors. “It was empty, public and historic, and we wanted to use it for the public,” said Josker. “We renovated, did 48 BizTucson
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structural enhancements and gutted it.” That process revealed some pleasant surprises. For one, the original exterior paint color was discovered and matched. “We now have an exact replica of the original paint,” said Josker. She described it as an adobe, peach-like color, replacing the pink exterior that covered the structure for years. Also exposed in the rehabilitation process and retained were original concrete floors and original wood hiding behind the walls. In January 2020, Visit Tucson, the city’s visitors bureau, became the first of the new tenants to occupy the reno-
Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum vated building, but after six weeks it was shut down because of COVID-19. Other tenants moved into their restored spaces in phases, and by last summer, all attractions and entities were settled in and welcoming the public. That includes the Southern Arizona Heritage and Visitor Center, University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum, Pima County Attractions & Tourism and the Dillinger courtroom. American gangster John Dillinger was notoriously captured in Tucson in 1934. “We changed the courtroom back to its original look and took the story of www.BizTucson.com
