Henry Trost designed this home for Federico (Fred) and Maria (Lupe) Ronstadt in the year of their marriage, 1904. This was eight years before Arizona statehood. In this final year of residence in Tucson, Trost was in partnership with Robert Rust. Rust was to continue new commissions in the Tucson office, but unfortunately, he died the following year at the age of 30.

The architectural style of the Ronstadt Residence has been labeled a hybrid, defying any single traditional description. Chicago School Prairie is the closest recognized influence. Trost was expanding design ideas with constant consideration for the needs of desert living, such as the exaggerated cornice or overhang of the flat roof that provides generous shading of the walls. Some have speculated that Trost was also inspired by Bhutanese Dzong temple architecture. In the simplest description, forms are characterized as cubic buildings capped by large floating rooflines. This residence is certainly more understated; however, some similarities can be possibly associated with this exotic influence.

Two dissimilar sized columns support the entrance and upper porch. A touch of elegance comes from the balcony elevated above the entrance and the two large lotus flower capitals atop the main columns. Artistic creativity from Trost’s tenure with the Chicago Ornamental Iron Company during the peak of Louis Sullivan’s authority over modern American design was carried forward to nearly all of his future use of ornamentation. This is seen in the filigree patterns over the entrance. Trost was known to be able to sketch these patterns by hand. Below is an example of his Chicago studies and a close up of the Ronstadt balcony.  

Aside from the focal point of the entrance, a clean geometric form defines the overall simple but attractive design. The layout of the ground level interior consisted of pattern of three rooms wide by three rooms deep. The upper level central hall extended back from the balcony. In a later renovation effort, it was determined that the brick structure was covered with a ‘soft’ plaster that allowed the plaster to expand with the brick without cracking. A soft plaster could last for 100 years if maintained with paint and mechanical abuse is avoided.

In 1868, Fred was born Federico José María Ronstadt in Sonora Mexico, the son of a German-born father. He moved to Tucson in 1882 at the age of 14 to learn the wheelwright trade. He eventually formed the F. Ronstadt Wagon and Carriage Company, which later changed its name to the F. Ronstadt Hardware and Machinery Company. It became the largest business of its kind in southern Arizona. The blacksmith shop was located on Broadway Blvd near the current TEP building. A guitarist and vocalist, he founded what was probably Tucson's first professional orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense. In 1896. 24 years later he helped found the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Fred’s first wife was Sara Levin who had grown up in a society of theater and music. Fred and Sara had four children; Luísa, Laura, Frederick, and Alicia. Sara Levin contracted and died of scarlet fever in 1902. Luísa later traveled the world as a singer, dancer and actress under the name Luísa Espinal. She appeared in a movie with Marlene Dietrich. Luisa loved her memories of growing up singing along to Fred’s guitar on the porch, but she only returned to Tucson for short visits. Once settled in Hollywood, Tucson probably seemed like a dusty frontier town.

Dietrich (left) and Espinal, as a gypsy dancer (right) in The Devil Is A Woman. (Image from: From Luisa to Lalo Guerrero, Thomas Sheridan)

Fred’s second wife, whose nickname was Lupe, was born Maria Guadalupe Agustina Dalton in Tucson in 1882, the year Fred arrived in Tucson. In 1903 she applied for and received a bookkeeper’s position at the F. Ronstadt Company. A year later Fred and Lupe married on Valentines’ day, took a trip to Mexico, and returned to Tucson to live in the nearly completed new home on North 6th Avenue. At the time, the Trost designed home was still being built, Fred also served as a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors and was one of the most influential members of the community.

Fred would ride his horse from their home to work and back for lunches. Lupe and Fred had four children, all boys; William, Alfred, Gilbert, and Edward. All were born in this house. Gilbert is Linda Ronstadt’s father. A favorite family activity was to take day trips to Sabino Canyon. Everyone piled into a wagon drawn by two horses, leaving at 4 o’clock in the morning for the four-hour trip. The men would shoot doves and quail on the way to add to the picnic menu. Lupe died in 1974, twenty years after Fred’s passing.

The North 6^th Avenue house was initially large enough for the eight children, however, the Ronstadts sold the home in 1922 as the growing third generation of family moved to their new homestead of 80 acres south of the Rillito River. Several homes were built here over time to raise grandchildren. Some lots were subdivided near Prince Road and Tucson Blvd while the family compound still consists of three houses.

In the 1940s, the rooms of the ‘North 6^th Avenue Ronstadt Residence’ were rented under the name of the St. Francis Apartments. The first-floor windows were converted to doors for access to six elegant apartments. After a couple of decades, the building fell into disrepair. By the 1960s and early 1970s the owner had converted the home into 36 rental units sharing only a few bathrooms. It had become a dilapidated low-rent flophouse.

The building was considered an eyesore in the neighborhood by the time architecture student David Goff started renovation work in 1979. He had bought the house two years earlier at the age of 23 and started the cleanup process while the last of the renters eventually moved out. Every square foot inside and out had to be reworked to its original condition. Goff used his own and some of his parent’s funds to start the project and secured Territorial Bank construction loans to complete the project. The project posed a significant risk if some structural defect was discovered along the way. None were. Seven years later the former prominent house was returned to as close as possible to its original condition. Members of the Ronstadt family were able to share photos that provided the details needed for the renovation. The home was opened as a bed and breakfast business. Goff is considered a hero by many for taking on a project that many would not have attempted and nearly no lender would have funded if it weren’t completed as a labor of love. David has later supervised other renovations, served as a neighborhood advocate, worked for the city as an architect, and founded a company that provides floor plan drawings of existing buildings; Floor Plans First.

Advertisements for tearoom events and author talks appear in the 2006 time period and the building served as professional offices since then. It currently houses the UA Venture Capital Fund LLC offices; whose CEO is Fletcher McCusker.