Urban Living with all the Charm of a Garden Bungalow

 

 

Our History

 

Built in 1911, the historic Hinchcliffe Court—dubbed the Hinchcliffe Shire—is a unique community of ten Craftsman cottages set on more than an acre in the heart of Tucson’s historic downtown. A prized feature of the late nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Arts and Crafts movement, bungalow courts once dominated many urban spaces in the West, especially in California, Oregon, and Washington, in such cities as Pasadena, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Charles Hinchcliffe brought the inspiration with him to Tucson from Pasadena, California in 1910, where the court concept originated. Shortly after arriving, he bought a portion of the gardens and tennis court from the Herrington-Franklin (later Carroll) family, whose large estates faced Main Street. Here he built and marketed (by postcard) the first and only surviving “motor court bungalow community,” targeted at well-heeled snowbirds largely from the Midwest and West Coast.

 

For more than a century, the Hinchcliffe Court has been a remarkable part of downtown Tucson’s community life and local color. Nestled among turn-of-the-century mansions in the “Old Main” and Presidio neighborhood, the Hinchcliffe Shire is a block from the Tucson Museum of Art and the eighteenth-century ruins of the historic Spanish Presidio. It is also a short walk to some of Tucson’s finest restaurants, bars, and cafes and a twenty-minute walk to the University of Arizona. Across the street from Tucson’s Granada Gallery, a central showcase for the international Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, the Hinchcliffe Court is a ten-minute walk to the Federal Court Building, the historic Pima County Court House, and the Tucson Music Hall, Convention Center, and Arena.

 

Restoration and Sensitive Modernization

 

In 2015, the Hinchcliffe Court came into new ownership for the first time in nearly a century. Craftsman bungalow preservationists and authorities on the American arts and crafts movement in architecture, the new owners have begun the process of restoring and updating this storybook village—the cottages, gardens, and walls. With a one- or two-bedroom layout, each cottage has a unique footprint, with original fireplaces, wooden floors, oak paneled dining rooms, and modernized kitchens and bathrooms. The process of restoration pays tribute both to historic detail and craftsmanship and to high-end 21^st-century amenities and elegant-but-understated modernization. Enclosed by garden walls, the cottages form a horseshoe around the redesigned park-like grounds, offering a sense of community, while sheltering the privacy of the bungalows and their residents.

 

Urban living and Nostalgic Charm: Reserve your place

 

The Hinchcliffe Shire offers furnished and unfurnished cottages for long- and short-term rental and lease. Ideal for seniors, professionals, retirees, and snowbirds who want to be in the heart of Tucson’s vibrant urban culture, the Court is an easy walk to art galleries and performing arts venues, fine dining, and an array of corporate businesses and services. The refurbished and expanded streetcar transports locals in a circuit that runs from the University of Arizona to the downtown, with its historic Barrio neighborhood, and around the downtown’s historic core of Spanish and Art Deco buildings, hotels, churches, and civic architecture, and the Territorial, Mission, and Pueblo Revival style of its historic homes.

 

For those looking for the energy of urban life in a warm climate and in a city with a storied colonial and frontier history (in a region that was the hub of the “wild west”), the Hinchcliffe Shire offers access to both the Sonoran Desert’s famed mountains, canyons, and wildlife and a range of cultural institutions. With close proximity to the University of Arizona’s continued education seminars, lectures, and concerts, and its library, special collections, and humanities and science centers, it’s ideally located for life-long learners.

 

Birders find Tucson and the surrounding canyons of the Santa Catalina, Tucson, and Rincon mountains a riparian paradise, a migratory destination for many wintering and native Sonoran species. With access to golf and a national culture of running, biking, hiking, rock climbing, and year-round distance training, the downtown weds the cultural richness and excitement of urban living with the active outdoor life in one of the most bio-diverse wilderness woodlands, deserts, and grasslands in the country.

 

Convenience for the Well-Travelled Guest or Resident

 

Fifteen minutes from Tucson International Airport, the historic downtown and the Hinchcliffe Shire are closely situated to the 10 freeway for easy access along an eastern corridor to such landmarks as Tombstone—the site of the 1881 shootout at OK Coral—the Victorian canyon town of Bisbee, Arizona’s wine country, canyon hiking, trail riding, and skiing. It is also a perfect site for visits to Mexico, to its northern mountain towns and its resorts along the Sea of Cortez. To the north, one can easily visit Phoenix, Flagstaff, Prescott, Grand Canyon National Park, the well-preserved Anasazi ruins near Sedona.

 

For those wanting to downsize into a cozy cottage in a warm metro area, but not give up the peace and pleasure of a house and garden for the populated bustle of a condominium high-rise, the Hinchcliffe Court offers the comfort and artisan ambience associated with a gentler time, without sacrificing the convenience and amenities of modern urban living.