Many thanks to W. Lane Rogers, author of Crimes and Misdeeds: Headlines from Arizona's Past for researching this information.
Clues Unlimited is located in Broadway Village, the oldest shopping center in Arizona (built in l939). Its plan was inspired by the village square in the tiny Mexican town of Patzcuaro.
When John and Helen Murphey decided to re-create Patzcuaro with modern improvements as a shopping center, they chose the well-known architect Josias Joesler to design the plans. (Joesler's other public buildings in Tucson include the beautiful St Philips in the Foothills Episcpopal Church, the Casas Adobes shopping center, and the Arizona Historical Society.)
Residents of luxurious El Encanto just to the east were furious and organized to stop the project they saw as an intrusion on their rural isolation. Eventually, however, they came to take pride in its charm and characteristically Joesler use of arches, breezeways, tiles, wrought iron, and adobe--a blend of Spanish, English and Indian traditons found only in Tucson.
In l986, Joe and Elaine Livermore opened a mystery bookstore in the center. They called it Footprints of a Gigantic Hound, and the Irish Wolfhound Mr. Calder carried out the name as the store mascot. The store and Mr. Calder were featured in several newspaper articles as well as appearing in Jan Burke's Remember Me, Irene. Mr. Calder is also acknowledged in the afterward to the book.
About 10 years later, Christine Burke, Patricia Davis, and Charlene Taylor purchased the store. Mr. Calder went into retirement and the three new owners changed the store name to Clues Unlimited. Emily, an Abyssinian guinea pig, was the store's first mascot.
Charlene left in 2000 and then Pat in 2002, Christine, her husband Marcelino, and Sophie the pot-bellied pig are now the owners of the bookstore, and a variety of animals from rabbits to lovebirds have helped maintain the store's warm atmosphere.
For more information see, C. L. Sonnichsen, The Life and Times of an American City.