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A YUMA RE REVITALIZING A

The six o'clock sun casts long shadows along Second Street in Yuma's North End. Artist Louise Tester Pollard passes by a turn-of-the-century storefront and tips her cane in greeting to local merchant Lenore Stuart. Annie, the golden Lab across the street, barks a friendly welcome back hello to her owner ceramic artist Neely Tomkins. Clad in a clay-covered apron, Tomkins leans over and plants a kiss on Annie's head, leaving a large red lipstick imprint. We are in new Downtown Yuma, which also is old Downtown Yuma. The wide streets and historic buildings create the feeling of a sleepy town caught in a time warp. Take a stroll down the streets and discover something unique. Downtown Yuma is experiencing a renaissance. Like buried treasure, the charm of Yuma's past is being unearthed. The Yuma of today is much different from the town it was in the 1970s. The downtown area once was the thriving nucleus of the community, but as the city expanded south, merchants closed their businesses and moved away. The beautiful old facades along Main Street were plastered over to create a pedestrian mall. Shortly thereafter, charming turn-of-the-century houses were abandoned and boarded up. The North End fell into decline. But longtime residents were unwilling to let old downtown Yuma vanish into new fast-food franchises. Soon young artists moved into the area with a vision for the future and united with the existing community to lay a foundation for the North End's rebirth. Rosemarie Gwynn chose to restore her family's 1871 adobe house as the museum for the Historical Society she founded. Inside its thick walls, the cool air envelops visitors as they walk through Yuma's past. People wander by the Quechan Indian exhibit into tiny rooms decorated with period furniture and out into the colorful gardens and aviaries, where peacock cries cut through the warm desert air. In the garden that was part of the original estate, tourists and townspeople gather to converse and dine in the lush setting of The Garden Cafe and Coffee Company. Patrons sit at tables covered in floral cloths, shaded beneath colored canopies as vivid as the history of the restaurant's founders: Gwynn and her late husband, Howard. Gwynn is a pioneer's daughter, and her husband was born in an Arizona mining camp.

NAISSANCE LOST DOWNTOWN

Round the corner from the restaurant, potter Jan Fulcher works at her wheel in the window of Colorado River Pottery. Her blue eyes are intent on her latest creation.

One door east of Jan Fulcher's studio is Stuart and Stuart's The Spice Company. Manager Michael Baugham holds court over a cup of coffee, discussing the best methods for brewing coffee or tea.

Nearby in the historic Tyng House, a 122-year-old restored two-story adobe, lives Louise Tester Pollard. Bright pink Mexican primroses spill over in her garden. Beyond the terra-cotta fountain, down a narrow brick walk, is her small studio, where a painting of primroses is in progress. “I have been all over the world,” Pollard says, “and there is no place I'd rather live that is as magical as Yuma.” As the first director of The Arizona Commission on the Humanities, Pollard has been a motivating force behind developing the humanities in Yuma as well as throughout Arizona. When the city threatened to tear down the majestic old railroad depot to make way for a parking lot, Pollard helped

42 February 1998 Unite the community to restore the building as the home of the Yuma Art Center. When the railroad depot burned down in 1993, she helped find a new home for the center on Main Street. Pollard didn't stop at restoring historic buildings and creating an art center. She encouraged other artists to share in the magic of Yuma. When ceramist George Tomkins, Neely Tomkins' husband, was searching for studio space at the Commission on the Arts in Phoenix, Pollard told him there was a wonderful space across the street from her in Yuma. When she arrived home that afternoon, Tomkins was waiting at her front door. Pollard laughs as she recalls, "I showed him the space, and George took his wheel inside and started throwing pots right then and there. He's still here." He used to share the space with metal sculptor Peter Jagoda. Jagoda and Tomkins were founding members of The Yuma Symposium, an annual arts conference that attracts participants from around the world. The 18-year-old symposium has been a major contributor to the revitalization of Yuma. More than 400 artists descend on Yuma every February for the three-day event, filling the local hotels and eateries to capacity. On the first day of the symposium, Lute's Casino comes alive with an eclectic crowd of artists leaning over red and white checkered tablecloths as they register for upcoming lectures and workshops. The regular customers pay the artists no mind, quietly continuing their domino games in the oldest continuing pool hall and domino parlor in the state. The Casino, one of the few businesses to survive the street's conversion to a mall, has been serving customers on Main Street since the roaring '20s. After registering, the artists head for lectures at the old Yuma Theater. The 1911 vaudeville house was restored in the grand style of the '30s after a fire gutted it. Outmoded by modern theaters, it was forced to close in 1979. The Yuma Symposium served as an impetus to reopen the theater for lectures and slide shows. Realizing that the theater was a hidden treasure, the community began to restore it. Today when visiting artists and tourists walk through its doors they discover Art Deco gems inside: hand-painted murals, gold leafing, and graceful sconces. After the theater, people browse in the new shops tucked in the arcade at 224 Main Street. The city-designed facades at 224 Main are reminiscent of the kinds of buildings found on the street at the turn of the century. Farther along the mall, another notable city project: a mural portraying Indians in ceremonial dress set against a backdrop of the red mountains and blue waters of Arizona. The city of Yuma is extremely supportive and proud of the arts. In fact, 15 years ago a group of local artists, teachers, and citizens started a grass roots organization to promote cultural activities in Yuma. Today that nonprofit corporation is the Cultural Council of Yuma. In an effort to make the arts accessible to the community, the council sponsors free Brown Bag Lunch Concerts on the revitalized mall. Audiences watch visiting performers like the trio of Native American musicians, Burning Sky; African storyteller Chief Adetunji Olokodana; and the Hot Band folk group. Joanne Davis, who used to head up the Cultural Council of Yuma, emphasizes, "Fifteen years ago, people wanted to bulldoze this area. But the artists and people who were supportive of the arts decided they were going to hang on and make it happen. It's been a long haul, but it wouldn't have happened without them."

that nonprofit corporation is the Cultural Council of Yuma. In an effort to make the arts accessible to the community, the council sponsors free Brown Bag Lunch Concerts on the revitalized mall. Audiences watch visiting performers like the trio of Native American musicians, Burning Sky; African storyteller Chief Adetunji Olokodana; and the Hot Band folk group. Joanne Davis, who used to head up the Cultural Council of Yuma, emphasizes, "Fifteen years ago, people wanted to bulldoze this area. But the artists and people who were supportive of the arts decided they were going to hang on and make it happen. It's been a long haul, but it wouldn't have happened without them."

Not only has the town sustained the

A YUMA RENAISSANCE

artists, but the artists have supported the town by helping with the renaissance. Walk down Second Street and find a quiet block filled with restored turn-of-the-century houses. Here ceramist Neely Tomkins works in the sunny front room of her pottery shop.

Another beautifully restored building sits at the corner of Second and Main. The old Yuma National Bank building was built in the Spanish-Colonial Revival style. Its high arched walkways and Corinthian columns suggest how downtown Yuma looked in the '20s. The pale pink stucco building, lovingly renovated by the city, now houses the County Administrative Headquarters.

A fine example of the Spanish-Colonial architectural style is the Old Yuma Post Office, which was recently purchased by the Gowan Co. agricultural firm as its world headquarters. The majestic terra-cotta building is in the process of being restored, one of the many projects that are part of the future revitalization of Yuma.

Lenore Stuart, who is a board member of Yuma Main Street, Inc., a nonprofit organization interested in the redevelopment of the historic downtown, says, “There is a great deal of new interest in developing the downtown area and making it a delightful place to visit. There are many exciting events happening.” The North End community is slowly realizing its dreams of unearthing a rich past. Yuma's emerging downtown is in a chrysalis state, a work in progress. For information on visiting the “lost treasures” of Yuma and winter fun along Arizona's West Coast, contact the Yuma Convention and Visitors Bureau, 377 Main St., P.O. Box 230, Yuma, AZ 85364, (520) 783-0075; or Yuma Main Street, Inc., (520) 782-5712. In addition to downtown Yuma, we suggest visiting Yuma Crossing Quartermaster Depot, Yuma Territorial Prison State Park, Century House Museum/Arizona Historical Society, Fort Yuma, and the Yuma Valley Railway.

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