(English version)

The Fish House is part of the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block, and currently houses the John K. Goodman Pavillion of Western Art.

A site with a walking tour of downtown Tucson summarizes the Fish House with:

Next door, across the main entranceway from the Stevens/Duffield House, you can step into the Edward Nye Fish House, built by a rich businessman in 1868 with 15-foot ceilings and solid adobe walls more than 2.5 feet thick. The rooms display high-quality pieces of the Goodman Pavilion of Western Art, mostly from the Southwest. Edward Fish was a good friend of Hiram Sanford Stevens, and much of Tucson's early social life centered on their houses.

There's more about the history of the Fish House, and its 1980s use as private retail space, in this 1996 cover article in the Tucson Weekly. According to an April 2001 article in the Weekly, the Fish House "may actually incorporate a piece of the fabled presidio wall built by the Spanish in 1783."

So who was Banjo Dick?

The ever-useful In The Steps of Esteban site has this to say about him:

"The person with the most illustrious career, ... who by far stamped his personality upon the pioneer citizenry of Tucson more than any other Negro was Mr. Charley Williams -- known to all Tucson music lovers as Banjo Dick ."

Born in Kentucky on December 30, 1949, Williams came to Yuma, Arizona, from California in 1871. In Yuma he met and was later employed by Mr. L.A. Smith. In 1872, Williams moved to Tucson with the Smith family and worked for them as a " 'all around man' -- raising children, washing, ironing and taking care of the livery." Williams began to play the banjo "as a means of expressing his soul and also as a method of getting a little extra money." His biggest engagement was that of playing at La Vennis Park, the exclusive rendevous of the Tucson aristocrats. In 1891, Williams move to Nogales, Arizona, where he ran a shoe shining parlor for 3-4 years. The whereabouts of "Banjo Dick" after this time are unknown.

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