A balance between preserving history and creating new student housing is playing out at Speedway Boulevard and Euclid Avenue, where five historic homes were moved to a West University neighborhood to make way for a new high-rise. The last home was moved in September.

About five years ago, developer Capstone Communities approached Tucson community member Joel Ireland with a plan to move five historic homes to his property to clear the site for student housing. Ireland said that Capstone covered all expenses until the homes were settled on his land.

For Ireland, a native of Tucson and a long-time resident of West University, the project is personal.

“My main thing in this is preserving these houses. I’ve always lived in West University. I was born and raised in Tucson. I’ve always been interested in old houses and fixing them up,” Ireland said.

Ireland described many of the houses as being in poor condition before the move.

“These houses were really in danger of catching on fire […] They really were dilapidated. They were going to be goners,” Ireland said.

But instead of demolition, the homes — built between 1890 and 1930 — were transported to a new location by rolling them on wheels down Speedway.

Now that the homes are on his property, Ireland is responsible for all the renovations, which he said should take about 12-18 more months to complete. Once the renovation is complete, Ireland said he wants renters who want to take care and preserve these older homes.

Before relocating the houses, Ireland had to take several steps to make the project feasible. He first needed to tear down another house he owned, which allowed him to create an additional lot for a total of five spaces. Ireland also had to seek approval from two of the city’s historical boards: the West University Historic Zoning Advisory Board and the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission Plans Review Subcommittee.

“For some reason in Tucson, we do this. It’s bizarre,” Ireland said.

But Ireland added that this bizarreness is for a reason; he and his sons were raised in these homes and he hopes to pass on his love for preservation to his children.

818 E. Speedway Blvd. and 814 E. Speedway Blvd. are two of the five houses that have been relocated as part of Ireland’s preservation efforts.

In the 1980s, Chris Carlone lived at 814 E. Speedway Blvd., a time when both 814 and 818 were notorious for their underground music scene. One of these homes, known as “Club 818,” became a hub for punk rock musicians and unforgettable gatherings.

When Carlone moved back to Tucson in 2021 he saw the houses and was flooded with nostalgic memories of the ‘80s. After returning, Carlone decided to make a documentary called “The Tale of Two Houses” because of his disbelief that the houses were still in the same spot.

“This is before I heard that they were building these [high-rises]. I’m like, there’s no way these are gonna make it for another five years,” Carlone said.

When Ireland started relocating, Carlone said the way they moved the houses couldn’t have been more fitting for 818 and 814.

“What a surreal experience it was to be out there in the street and seeing them like [that], it’s kind of fitting, in a way. […] It’s not every day that you see a house on wheels, on remote control wheels, moving down the street. And it couldn’t be happening to a more fitting house, because that house was, you know, that whole world, it was such a surreal, crazy, fun place, [a] vortex,” Carlone said.

Having lived in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Carlone added that Tucson possesses a unique quality that no other city can replicate.

“Coming back to Tucson, one of the things I love about it, and one of the things that hasn’t really changed much, is that you’ve got Speedway Boulevard blocked off at 11 [at night] […] and it’s so laid back. You’re rolling this giant house down the street, and there’s, maybe two cop cars there,” Carlone said.

Carlone is supportive of Ireland’s efforts to preserve the houses and move them to a new spot.

“I have seen so many things disappear and just be bulldozed. I’m 54, so it’s like, after a while you start seeing this a lot in your life,” Carlone said. “It’s really special, even if it’s just these little groups of houses, that someone’s moving them around the corner. […] These things are just sort of infectious and make people say, ‘Wow, this is special and people care’, and that can only be a positive thing.”

According to Carlone, he has met Ireland and his sons and Ireland has seen his documentary about the historic Tucson homes.

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