Mountain Oyster Club

Last month I had some buyers who used to be members of the Mountain Oyster Club, which was at the southwest corner of Stone and Franklin in the old Jacome Mansion. The Mountain Oyster Club's website states that according to legend, the club was originally founded in 1948 by ranchers who got thrown out of the more staid country clubs. The Jacome mansion was the club's home for 30 years until for various reasons the members moved to a new location.















Subsequently, someone tried without success to open a restaurant in the former club headquarters. Now the old 14,000 square foot mansion is for sale for $1,000,000 and my buyers wanted to see whether they could turn their old club back into a home.

While the project wasn't feasible for my buyers, it was fun to see the inside of this amazing building. A dome visible from the outside covered a second story swimming pool, surrounded by columns.

I was particularly intrigued by the murals done by a naive Tucson painter named Corona. I couldn't find out more about him, but I'm told his murals were all over town. I especially liked his use of small round mirrors in the paintings.

I sure hope someone can rescue this old Tucson treasure. It is listed with Ron Campbell of Long Realty Company.