A black and white postcard showing Tin Town in the foreground and South Bisbee in the background. The message on the back in ink reads: "South Bisbee Mine and Tin Town." Maggie Martin Collection.

Tin Town was a suburb for Bisbee’s Mexican residents. It suffered a fire on September 25th, 1916 when a fire ignited in Carlos Allen store attic burned down the building and most of its stock. It took seven other buildings around it and caused $7,500 ($198,928.00 in 2021). In the end Carlos Allen lost his store, residence and garage, the nature of the fire burned so quickly that it posed less of a risk to his neighbors. Newton’s Auto Stage ran a car line between the neighborhoods charging Tin Town residents 25 cents to get to either Lowell or Don Luis. In February. 2017 the USDA Rural Development and Environmental Protection Agency funded 1.4 million for a wastewater collection system for Tin Town residents. Before that Tin Town was dealing with a failing septic systems. Tin Town today hosts the Bisbee Homeless Shelter.

2013.21.12