Stone Avenue Underpass


The Stone Avenue Underpass, affectionately known to native Tucsonans as "Lake Elmira", is a historic underpass on Stone Avenue in Tucson, Arizona.
The underpass was completed in January 1936. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 30, 1988. Between 6th street and Toole Avenue it has two lanes and passes under the railroad tracks that run through downtown Tucson.
Due to the poor drainage it fills fast during heavy downpours of rain because of that was nicknamed Lake Elmira. Named after a young 13 year old Elmira Doakes by an Arizona Daily Star reporter named Howard Owetly way back in the summer of 1937. Back then in summer before AC most people who could leave Tucson would. The Old Pueblo was vacant of news. Nothing much of note was happening! Stuck in a place with no news to report. And desperately needing something to send to print the journalist had a brilliant idea and thus our legend was born...The Legend Of Lake Elmira.
In the 1980s two young history buffs had a zinc plaque made and placed it on one of pillars without permission from the City Of Tucson or The Arizona Historical Society. It reads in English and Spanish:
“Lake Elmira. According to a 1937 newspaper account, thirteen year old Elmira Doakes was the first person to successfully swim across the body of water which formed in the Stone Avenue Underpass. Her route from the Toole Avenue Landing to the Northern Shore has not to our knowledge been followed since. There is apparently no truth to the rumor that the Federal aid was denied in 1940 for building docking facilities and a chlorinating system in this once popular recreational area. (Although the Doakes current whereabouts is not known, it is believed that she moved to California after the Underpass received more efficient drains in the mid-sixties.

Floodable underpasses