The old Baum’s at 2845 E. Speedway. (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson)
NOTE: The 17th in a series of tracking down lost or forgotten sports venues, trophies and artifacts in the Old Pueblo.
There was a time when local sporting goods stores where part of the norm in the Old Pueblo but the days of Woody’s, Medina’s, Jack Ellis, Yellow Front, Dave LeCompte and Baum’s are long gone. There are still some smaller places that specialize in soccer, golf and tennis gear but one needs to turn to the larger national retailers like DICK’s Sporting Good and Big 5 Sporting Goods if they want immediate purchases, if available.
The first Baum and Adamson tire shop located at 92. N. Stone (Andy Morales) and then at Stone and Toole (Buehman Studios)
The days of walking into Baum’s and pulling two dozen blank shirts out of a box and have the guy behind the counter hot press names and numbers on them that moment for a club team are long gone. Good luck with Amazon and all the local shops will take days if not weeks to get your order done.
K.L. Hart Store was the first sporting goods store in Tucson and it was located at 17 E. Congress in the 1880s. The Nook restaurant occupies that address now. The first known store to sell football pads was in 1908 at the Reid Sporting Goods Co., located on 44 N. Stone. Speaking of football pads, the University of Arizona used to purchase pads from Baum’s before jerseys and equipment became a big national business. Even TUSD bought equipment there until state bidding laws took over.
Baum’s group sales at 1927 E. 19th and the first retail store at 32 N. Campbell. (Andy Morales)
Baum’s? Amazingly, it all started in 1917 when Harold Adamson moved to Clarkdale, Arizona from Cincinnati and then to Tucson in 1920. His friend, J. Clayton Baum, followed him to Arizona and the two opened up the first Baum and Adamson Tire Company in 1923 at 92 N. Stone Ave, which would become The Pioneer Hotel Building a few years later.
With pending building on the original site, the two moved to what was known as, “The Point,” the southeast corner of Stone and Toole where the courtyard where the Country Recorder’s and Justice Courts now stand. The two men were instrumental in moving the rail yard out of the Toole area to where it is now situated along the Barraza Parkway and they pushed for (and got) the tunnels under the railroad tracks that we all use now.
LINK: MORE HISTORIC STORIES HERE
The Baum and Adamson franchise grew over the years until it was sold to …….