Ward 2 is a sprawling area along the Pantano Wash backed by the Santa Catalina Mountains. The thriving town features residential neighborhoods, local parks, medical facilities, shopping centers, and more. The Tucson Medical Center is situated in the north end of town and provides not only high-quality healthcare but an abundance of jobs as well. The commercial section of town is centered around East Grant Road, featuring boutiques, big-box stores, and a variety of restaurants. Golf Courses, parks, and waterfront trails dot Ward 2, providing outdoor recreation.
Ward 2 sits within the City of Tucson, originally a native settlement that became home to a presidio, or fortress city, founded by Hugo Oconór under the name San Agustín de Tucson. Oconór was an Irish mercenary in the employment of Spain. The area became part of the State of Sonora after Mexican Independence. Although it was not included in the lands that the United States acquired after the Mexican War, the United States made the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, which included the parts of modern Arizona and New Mexico south of the Gila River.
Tucson was the first city in Arizona to be incorporated in 1877, although what we now know as Ward 2 didn’t become part of Tucson until a series of annexations started in 1959.
The Tucson Desert Art Museum sits a short drive away on East Tanque Verde Road. It has an annual holiday market, and it participates in downtown Tucson’s annual Meet Yourself folklife festival.
The five “regional parks” that are in Ward 2 are Morris K. Udall Park, Palo Verde Park, Stefan Gollob Park, Jesse Owens Park and Case Park, a natural resources park.
Ward 2 Neighborhoods
Old Fort Lowell
People think of the East side as new, but we have historic neighborhoods. One is Old Fort Lowell, which can trace its roots to the 1870s.
Will C. Barnes included Fort Lowell in his Arizona Place Names. He gets the date of the Battle of Cedar Creek wrong, but we’ll forgive it.
Well-known military post near Tucson. Named for Gen. C. R. Lowell, U. S. A., killed May 21, 1862, at Cedar Creek, Va. First camp established by California Volunteers under Lieut. Col. West immediately after Tucson was abandoned by Confederates Sept. 15, 1864. Reestablished Aug. 1866.
Will C. Barnes, Arizona Place Names
That initial fort was near downtown, but various issues with both malaria and the temptations associated with a Wild West town led the US Army to move the fort to the location we are familiar with in 1873.
The fort was decommissioned in 1891. Many Hispanic families from Tucson, still located miles away, migrated to the area. Many of the 30 or so adobe structures became housing for those families. The historic San Pedro Chapel was built in 1915 to serve those families. It was rebuilt in 1932 and is currently managed by the Old Fort Lowell Neighborhood Association.
Mormon farmers also moved into the area too, occupying the land north of the old fort and leaving a legacy of canals that can still be seen.
Many of those Hispanic families moved out in the decades since. Those families are honored every February in the annual Reunion de El Fuerte.
Fort Lowell Park and parts of the neighborhood north of Fort Lowell were annexed into the city in 1992, meaning the protection of many of the historic resources are the responsibility of the city. Management of the museum is now done by the Presidio Museum and Ward 2 is working on preservation of the commissary property.