This Tucson neighborhood got street names from 1928 contest

Note to readers: This is a reprint of a 2014 article.

The first known use of the land that El Encanto Estates now occupies was as part of a 160-acre homestead bounded by present-day Fifth Street, Country Club Road, Broadway Boulevard and Palo Verde Avenue.

Henry J. Blaise received a homestead patent on the land from the U.S. government on April 1, 1907.

Blaise was born around 1861 in Iowa and married Agapita Saenz on April 27, 1901, in Pima County. They had a daughter, Rose, around 1902.

Blaise was involved in mining and owned at least one mine in Pima County, which he sold for $500 in 1904.

The 1910 U.S. Census lists him as a cattle rancher, "working on his own account". So, while it seems unlikely today, this affluent neighborhood might have been, a least for a couple years, a small ranch.

In October 1910, Sheriff John Nelson seized the 160-acre homestead after Blaise failed to pay a debt of $466.30 to Albert Steinfeld & Co. The foreclosed land eventually was sold to Steinfeld's brother-in-law, Hugo J. Donau, in March 1913.

Donau, born in Germany on June 18, 1870, moved around the United States before coming to Tucson in 1895 to follow his sister Bettina (Donau) Steinfeld and brother Alfred S. Donau. He worked for the merchant firm L. Zeckendorf & Co.,, which later became Albert Steinfeld & Co. He was also involved, with his brother, in the Arizona Land & Cattle Co.

Donau didn't hold the land for long, selling the 160 acres in June 1913 to Urban Realty. The following year, that company sold a 10-acre portion at present-day Broadway and Country Club Road to P.E. Fogle.

Around 1921, Leroy C. James was living at the corner of Broadway and Country Club and a few years later owned 10 acres of land, presumably the same parcel once owned by Fogle. On the site was a three-room cottage, built prior to 1921, that is the oldest residence in El Encanto Estates.

James, born in 1879 in Ohio, moved with his wife and daughter to Tucson in 1919 and he managed the McArthur Brothers' Dodge dealership at Broadway and Scott Street He later became president of L.C. James Motor Co.  

In 1925, Urban Realty sold the eastern 40 acres of the original 160-acre homestead to an investor in the El Conquistador Hotel. That land is now part of the parking lot of El Con Mall. The rest of the land was sold to William B. Powhatan.

Powhatan, born in Indiana in 1880, moved his family many years later to Tucson for health reasons and became a land speculator, buying 600 acres in the Castle Rock Ranch area near Tanque Verde Road and later selling it for development. 

In 1928, William E. Guerin Jr. purchased all the land minus the 10 acres owned by James. Then Guerin, James and Powhatan, along with their wives, incorporated to form El Encanto Estates, Inc., with Guerin as president and Walter E. Lovejoy Sr., as assistant secretary.

Guerin, born in 1871 in Kansas, had practiced law in Ohio for many years and served in the Ohio State Legislature. Around 1928, he moved his wife and family to Tucson, where Guerin became involved in the development of El Encanto Estates. He later had his own home built there, at 30 E. Calle de Felicidad. 

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Lovejoy, born in 1891 in Iowa, moved with his family to Tucson in 1906. He was in the first graduating class of 10 students at Tucson High School in 1910, then located in the building known today as Roskruge Bilingual K-8 School. After high school he worked for Nathaniel Plumer (namesake of Plumer Avenue) at the Southern Arizona Bank for many years and later was president and chairman of the board of the Arizona Trust Co. Mayor Lewis C. Murphy proclaimed April 17, 1974 to be Walter E. Lovejoy Day.

Lovejoy's grandson, Walter E. "Bucky" Lovejoy III, who worked at Arizona Trust along with his father and grandfather, related a story the elder Lovejoy told his wife, Hazel, that she could have any lot at El Encanto Estates that she wanted. She turned down the offer because it was too far for her son, Walter Jr., to ride his bike to University Heights School at Park Avenue and Helen Street. Instead, they built a large home at 627 E. Speedway Blvd.

El Encanto Estates advertised a contest to choose Spanish street names for the new subdivision and received more than 600 submissions. On July 29, 1928, the Arizona Daily Star announced that, "A committee of seven directors and officers (including L.C. James, W.E. Lovejoy Sr. and W.E. Guerin) of the sub-division organization made the awards."

Winning contestants were awarded $5 apiece. The article named the winners, along with the Spanish names they suggested and their English translations (although some are loose translations). Women who won were listed under their husbands' names, but their full names are included here:

Louise U. Sibley: Calle de Felicidad (Happiness Street) and Calle Portal (Entrance Street)

Milton M. Cohen: Calle Primorosa (Neat Street)

Isma C. Blacklidge: Calle Encanto (Enchanted Street)

Olivia Maxey: Calle de Amistad (Friendship Street)

Rose M. Scruggs: Calle Corta (Short Street)

Carrie G. Meyer: Calle Belleza (Beauty Street)

Juan Lujan: Calle Claravista (Clearview Street)

Bessie Strohmajer: Camino Miramonte (Mountain View Road)

Petra Diaz: Calle Conquista (Conquest Street) and Calle Mirasol (Sunny View Street)

Margaret S. Galvez: Calle Resplandor (Splendor Street)

Note: The El Encanto Estates subdivision, along with the street names, was recorded with Pima County on Aug. 1, 1928. The first house built was by a Mr. Nail in 1929, and the second was by Ralph E. Ellinwood, who was editor and co-owner of the Arizona Daily Star. He also came up with the name of the now-demolished El Conquistador Hotel, from which El Con Mall derives its name.