The Plaza Theater was the crowning jewel of 1920s development on West Congress Street in Tucson and the only indoor Spanish language theater in Southern Arizona. The theater was designed by renowned local Tucson architect Roy Place in 1930 for A. Kaufman a local commercial developer and pioneer merchant and leased to Los Angeles theater operator Joe Gross. Kaufman declared the night before opening that he;"regarded the Plaza as Tucson's own theater, since all local employes [sic] had been hired for the construction of the building with equipment and contracting coming from Tucson sources whenever possible."