As the sun goes down and the lamp lights turn on Thursday evening, people are wandering in and gathering at the reopening celebration of Armory Park.
Families and small groups arrange blankets and lawn chairs on the grass. Others sit at tables or folding chairs set up in the new plaza and performance area to hear speeches from local residents, Ward 6 Council Member Miranda Schubert and Tucson Parks and Recreation staff.
“Public parks are some of the few places that truly belong to all of us,” Schubert says from under the park’s new pavilion.
“They are where neighbors become friends, children play, older adults gather, musicians perform, our new fur babies make friends. And community takes shape one conversation at a time,” she adds. “Armory Park has been that kind of place for generations, and today, we’re celebrating its next chapter.”
Nestled south of downtown, Armory Park is home to both the Children’s Museum Tucson and the Armory Park Senior Center but also includes multiple blocks of historic brick homes and iconic businesses like Owls Club bar.
The park is dotted with stout monuments honoring those who served their country and dates back to Camp Lowell’s establishment at the site in 1866 by the U.S. Army. The first armory in Arizona was built in 1914 at what neighbors originally called Military Plaza, and now is called Armory Park.
The camp consisted primarily of tents and community service was core to its existence: “A poorly built adobe structure functioned as a kitchen, and a rented building in town served as a hospital,” states the city’s park history site.
In recent years, the Community Care Tucson mutual aid group has held weekly food and resource distributions for unhoused communities, as well as local residents who are struggling to meet their food, hygiene or first aid needs, in the neighborhood’s namesake park.
The Tucson Delivers Proposition 407, a $225 million bond package for community capital improvements approved by voters in 2018, funded the $1.71 million renovation of Armory Park.
Updated amenities include a new pavilion, plaza and performance area, benches, picnic tables, a dog park, lighting, a restroom, irrigation and upgraded sidewalks, according to the city’s project website. Over the renovation’s planning process, the city gathered community input through surveys and events since 2023. Then began a historic review process in January 2024.
The park had been closed for renovations since September with tall construction fences lining the area. Now, besides a few areas sectioned off for the grass to grow, the park is open for visitors and the community to enjoy.
“We need to encourage people of all types, all backgrounds, all ages, to come in and use the park regularly throughout the week,” says Laurie Starr, a resident of Armory Park. During her speech, she shares a vision of the park continuing to be full of diverse activities, and of community members and city officials coming together to bring more public resources to life.
“I’m feeling like community connection is more important now than ever, right? And when it happens outside, it’s even better,” Starr says, looking out from her wide brim hat over the historic park and the people filling it once again.
Once the speeches conclude, Tucson’s Parks and Recreation staff, city officials and community members line up behind a long green ribbon with scissors in hand — ready to officially reopen the park and begin the festivities. As the ribbon is cut, Mariachi Valenzuela, led by a legendary Tucson familia that spotlights Mexican arts and culture, begins the renovated park’s first live performance, filling the area with music and echoes of celebration.
The Mariachi performance is followed by a thumping groove and funk set mixed by DJ Q of Sonido Tambó and a psychedelic rock and cumbia performance by Chicha Dust.
The songs serenade parkgoers. Artists from Circus Sanctuary move through the plaza with optical illusions and performing aerial stunts. Fire artists from Flam Chen dance, towering above the crowd on stilts.
El Ray Classic Car and Lowrider Car Showcase park on 13th Street alongside local food trucks, reflecting the historical significance of the park and the surrounding Barrio Viejo Latino communities. Attendees and passersby purchase hot empanadas, tacos and cool treats to help ease the desert heat — Aqua Frescas with fresh fruit and Italian ice with chamoy.
The night is buzzing in a revived neighborhood park.
Families play giant yard games in the grass. Groups eat food together around the plaza. And people dance under the pavilion as colorful lights shine on the area in rhythm to the bands’ percussion and songs.
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