Himmel Park Is Coming Back in Stages, and the Courts Came First

"There's going to be more opportunities for our patrons and community members to use this library," Anthony Batchelder, Deputy Director of Finance and Facilities for Pima County Libraries, told KGUN when Himmel Park Library closed on Monday, June 30, 2025. At the time, the station reported the project would take 18 months to two years.

By that estimate the library would reopen sometime between the end of 2026 and mid-2027. Pima County Public Library's Himmel Building Project page now says it will open to the public in late 2027. The rest of the park has its own schedule. The courts and walking path are already finished. The pool returns next summer, the library late next year, and the splash pad has no date at all.

Four pieces, four schedules

The City of Tucson's project sheet for Himmel Park falls under the Tucson Delivers Parks + Connections program. It lists $835,743 of investment across two phases, labeled 2020–2022 and 2023–2025. Combined with the county library project, this is where each piece stands at the end of October 2026:

The splash pad is the item that stands out. It belongs to the phase labeled 2023–2025, and that phase is now behind it on the calendar. The city's sheet still shows it in procurement and gives no opening date.

The library: walls up, doors closed for another year

From the sidewalk on Treat Avenue, the library looks closer to done than it is. In its August 12 update, the county reported the roof dried in, block veneer nearly finished and mechanical ductwork underway. The October 2 update shows exterior masonry going on, the roof nearly complete, interior utilities continuing and drywall going up. Drywall is interior work, and the county's published schedule leaves about a year between this stage and opening day.

The county lists Canyon Building & Design as contractor and PMM (Poster, Mirto, McDonald) as designer, with an $8 million project budget. The new addition holds the entry, service desk, computer commons, a study room, a multipurpose room and staff space. Outside, the plan adds a reading patio, a staff patio, new landscaping and a pollinator garden. KGUN's closure story described the reading space as a porch overlooking the park. It also said the project would bring more daylight into the building.

Sources give different size figures. The county's floor plan lists about 2,900 square feet of existing building and a roughly 7,100-square-foot addition. KGUN reported in 2025 that the finished library would total 11,000 square feet. The county's project page is the current reference, and both sources describe a substantially bigger branch.

What stays from 1961

The plan keeps the original reading room and demolishes the rest of the building. The first construction milestone the county logged was demolition of the building's southern half.

That room has a long history. According to the library's own history page, Himmel Park Library opened June 25, 1961, as the first branch library in the City of Tucson. William Carr designed it and architect D. Burr Dubois completed it. Mann Construction Co. built it on a $76,290 contract, with construction starting in 1960. The name goes back further. In 1935 the city bought a block of land near the park's current site from Alvina Himmel Edmonson for $3,500, on the condition that the land carry the Himmel name in honor of her parents.

The building has grown before. KGUN noted that the last major renovation, in 2018, took it from 4,200 to 6,540 square feet. This expansion keeps the 1961 reading room and replaces the rest of the building around it.

Familiar pieces outside are coming back too. At the third public meeting, held at Sam Hughes Elementary on January 21, 2025, the design team covered salvaging and reinstalling the memorial pavers, benches and bike racks. The donor pavers and benches will go into the new landscaping.

Until 2027, the courts are the park

With the library and pool both closed, the biggest active use of Himmel Park this winter is on the courts. The city's Phase 2 work renovated eight tennis courts at the tennis center and converted two of them into six pickleball courts. Reffkin Tennis Center runs them.

Court hours change on November 1. From April through October, courts open at 7 a.m. From November through March, Reffkin's Himmel page lists:

• Courts: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Pro shop, Monday–Friday: 8 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.
• Pro shop, Saturday–Sunday: 8 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 8 p.m.

For early players, the first hour of the day moves back from 7 to 8 a.m. Courts are first come, first served unless booked ahead, and advance reservations are made by phone at (520) 449-5580. The new walking path, the new ramada and the renovated half basketball court round out what's open now.

The pool's return comes first

Himmel Pool is next. The city's pool page says it is closed until summer 2027. The city classifies Himmel as a summer pool, and its plaster and tile renovation is already marked complete on the park project sheet. It is a recreation pool with one 25-yard lane, a 1-meter diving board, depths from 3.5 to 11 feet and a separate beach-entry wading pool. The pool page has an email signup for closure notices and updates.

If the dates hold, summer 2027 will have a working pool next to a library that is still closed, with the splash pad's timing unknown.

Living without the branch in the meantime

Plenty of library habits still route through Himmel on paper. Here is where those errands go now, per KGUN's closure report and the county's closure notice:

1. Holds. New holds set to Himmel Park are routed automatically to Martha Cooper Library, 1377 N. Catalina Ave. Library staff recommend changing your pickup location in your account settings.
2. Returns. The Himmel book chute is closed for the length of construction, so return materials at any other branch.
3. Nearby branches. The closure notice listed Martha Cooper at 2.2 miles, Joel D. Valdez Main Library at 101 N. Stone Ave. at 3.2 miles, and Eckstrom-Columbus Library at 4350 E. 22nd St. at 3.9 miles.
4. Book donations. Himmel can't accept them during construction. At closure, the Friends of the Pima County Public Library took donations at 2230 N. Country Club Road, Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

The donation hours come from summer 2025, so check them with the Friends before you load the car.

For neighborhood updates between county posts, the Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association calendar lists board meetings on Monday, November 16, and Monday, December 21, at 7 p.m. at the Ward 6 office, with a virtual option. The library's design meetings were held at that same office in 2024. The association's Mah Jong program also meets there on Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

At Net Properties Real Estate, Dan and Holly Leonard keep an eye on Himmel Park the way neighbors do. If you want to talk about how the library's late-2027 return and the pool's summer reopening fit into your own plans in Sam Hughes, Request a Call Back and one of us will get back to you personally.