J. C. Penney–Chicago Store Building, United States historic place

The J. C. Penney-Chicago Store Building is a large brick structure in downtown Tucson, Arizona, originally built in 1903 to house a furniture company before becoming a department store. The building displays Italianate design features such as decorative window trims and a solid, straightforward form typical of early twentieth-century retail spaces.

Built in 1903 for the Los Angeles Furniture Co., the building housed J. C. Penney by July 25, 1942. When Penney moved to the west side of Stone Avenue just north of Pennington Street in 1957, Aaronson Brothers took the space. The Chicago Store arrived after the El Paso-based department store closed in 1967.

The building carries the names of two retailers that occupied it: J. C. Penney, which moved in by July 25, 1942, and the Chicago Store, which arrived after the El Paso-based department store closed in 1967. Aaronson Brothers traded here from 1957, when Penney left for Stone Avenue just north of Pennington Street.

The building stands in downtown Tucson, and the sources give no street address beyond that; approach it on foot from the surrounding commercial blocks. The 2020–2022 work was a complete gutting, not a renovation, so the stamped tin ceilings and period woodwork are gone. What remains to see is the exterior.

The building was long the last retail space in Tucson with a completely original vintage interior from the early twentieth century before being substantially gutted between 2020 and 2022. This renovation removed most original interior features such as stamped tin ceilings and woodwork that had documented the period.