City High School Buys Historic ‘Cele Peterson’ Building Downtown for $1.8 M

City High School on a 2nd Saturday Downtown

Tucson Small School Project (TSSP) dba City High School purchased the historic building known as the Cele Peterson Building at 37-48 E Pennington Street in Downtown Tucson for $1.8 million ($66 PSF) from Four Peterson, LLC of Tucson (Eva Ann Peterson, Manager). TSSP was founded in 2002 with two primary goals: first, to launch and oversee a small, high quality charter high school in downtown Tucson; and second, to promote professional development and community dialogue in order to foster smaller and more equitable learning communities for all students in Arizona.

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[mepr-show rules=”58038″]The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools approved the TSSP charter application for City High School in March 2003 and the school opened for its first year of operation in September 2004 at 48 E Pennington Street. Tucson Small School Project is an Arizona nonprofit corporation with 501(c)3 status and is governed by a board of directors.

City High School then leased the property at 48 E Pennington Street from the Pederson Family, with 80 students in grades 9 and 10 enrolled. City High School now enrolls close to 200 students in grades 9-12 and has over 125 graduates pursuing a variety of college and career pathways in Arizona and beyond. The school expanded about six years ago, into 37 E Pennington Street, the property that was recipient of a Downtown Partnership grant from the City of Tucson and private donations for $35,000 in matching funds to the owners of historic buildings for $70,000 worth in restoration last year.

The property’s namesake, Cele Peterson’s Fashions, moved to 46-48 E Pennington in 1937. The Peterson family had to rebuild in 1958, after a fire. The building at 37 E Pennington Street (built 1941) first tenant was Howard & Stofft Stationers and was later occupied by Shoe City, before the Peterson family bought it in the 1980s. The business survived two World Wars and was once known as “Fashionable Pennington Street” due to the fashion powerhouse, Cele Peterson. The property is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

City High School’s location and size allows teachers and students to engage in frequent field studies, using Tucson as a textbook, and engaging in real world learning. “We see Downtown as the cultural, political, and economic hub of the city,” said co-founder Carrie Brennan. “It’s central to our mission.”

The school participates in 2nd Saturdays Downtown and have hosted teas for former store employees reminiscent of the days when the store held teas for its sophisticated, affluent, and stylish customers.

For more information on City High School, contact (520) 623-7223. [/mepr-show]