Visitor Center Architecture and Historical Pastiche

A New Kind of Visitor Center

Rather than restore and reconstruct the mission complex on conjectural information, as had done at Mission San Jose in San Antonio and other locations, the National Park Service historians, archeologists, and architects decided to preserve what remained of the adobe mission structures and instead put considerable effort into interpretation. This effort included the development of museum exhibits, but more importantly the construction of a museum that was an exhibit in itself.

Frank "Boss" Pinkley, the National Park Service head of the Southwestern Monuments, had definite ideas for the museum. He wanted a low building that would not interfere with the historic mission complex and that was close to the parking lot so that visitors entered immediately. He wanted a pleasing facade, but nothing too ornate. He felt the building should be large enough for future expansion if required, but of a design that complemented the mission's architecture. He wanted reproductions of doors, windows, and floor and ceiling structure that were found in other Sonoran missions of the Kino chain. He also wanted a "view room" where visitors could look out at the mission complex, and he even set the axis of the museum building at a particular angle so that visitors could see that "knock-out" view he chose.

The 1935 Expedition

The design for Tumacácori’s visitor center evolved from a 1935 expedition to thirteen Spanish colonial mission sites in Sonora and two in Arizona, at a time of political and social unrest in Mexico. During this period of anticlerical activity all the churches had been closed and their furnishings removed, hidden by local parishioners or destroyed. The trip was funded and authorized by the National Emergency Council, a branch of the PWA which coordinated work among federal agencies.

About the Public Works Administration

Created on June 16, 1933, several billion dollars were budgeted for public works in an effort to provide work and revive industry. Sometimes confused with the WPA (Works Progress Administration), workers did not have to be on relief. Before being abolished in 1941, the PWA completed 34,000 projects including seventy percent of the new schools built and one third of the hospitals. They also built electricity-generating dams, roads, airports, city halls, police stations, aircraft carriers, submarines, the San Francisco Bay bridge, Grand Coulee Dam, Washington National Airport and the highway linking the Florida keys to the mainland, among other projects. Public Works funds were also allocated by the Secretary of the Interior for construction of the visitor center and museum building at Tumacácori National Monument.

Left to right: Robert Rose, George Grant, Leffler Miller, J.H. Tovrea, Arthur Woodward, Scofield DeLong

George A. Grant, 1935

Six intrepid NPS professionals made the trip: Arthur Woodward, archaeologist and journalist; Scofield DeLong and Leffler B. Miller, architects; George A. Grant, photographer; Robert H. Rose, naturalist; and J.H. Tovrea, engineer. The report was republished by Buford Pickens in 1993 as The Missions of Northern Sonora, a 1935 Field Documentation (University of Arizona Press).

Various architectural features of the churches are visible in the construction of the visitor center building.

Front Entrance

Left image
Cocóspera
Credit: (photo by George Grant, 1935)

Right image
Tumacácori visitor center entrance

The shell motif is found in all Franciscan colonial churches for it symbolizes the patron saint of Spain, Santiago de Compostela. One can find excellent examples in the niches of the Tumacácori's bell tower and the front doors of Cocóspera and Tubutama.

Front Doors

Left image
San Ignacio

Right image
Tumacácori visitor center door

Note the pomegranate blossom design along the top of the image. Pomegranates, usually seen as a symbol of fertility and abundance, appear in many decorative forms thoughout the missions of the Pimería Alta. 

Spindles

Left image
San Pedro, choir loft railing
Credit: (photo by George Grant, 1935)

Right image
Tumacácori visitor center window grille

No one knows the exact design of Tumacácori's choir loft railing. It collapsed in the late 1800s. However these replica spindles form the window grille of the Visitor Center.

Ceiling

Left image
Oquitoa, roof (photo by George Grant, 1935)

Right image
Tumacácori visitor center ceiling

The beams crossing the ceiling are known as vigas and were usually made from ponderosa pine or other large timbers. Laid on top and perpendicular were smaller planks or branches known as latillas. The decorative end caps seen at Oquitoa and the Tumacácori visitor center are called corbels.

Panelled Doors

Left image
San Igancio, doors
Credit: (photo by George Grant, 1935)

Right image
Tumacácori museum doors

Raised panels on one side, recessed on the other, the interior doors of the Tumacácori visitor center resemble those at San Ignacio and other missions.

Arcade

Left image
Caborca
Credit: (photo by George Grant, 1935)

Right image
Tumacácori visitor center (view from inside mission grounds)

Like many Spanish architectural traditions, the covered walkway lined with arches has its roots in Arabic and Middle Eastern architecture.

The dark red painted canales provide drainage from the roofline.

Niche

Left image
San Ignacio, niche
Credit: (photo by George Grant, 1935)

Right image
Original visitor center drinking fountain

In churches, niches are reserved to display statues of saints. At Tumacácori's visitor center, this niche was built to hold a drinking fountain. Around the corner, another niche pedestal hold an original bronze statue of Father Eusebio Kino. Kino is named specifically in Tumacácori's enabling legislation and the bronze was sculpted by Eugene Morahan in 1936, specifically for this location.

Groined Vault

Left image
San Xavier baptistry
Credit: (photo by Donald W. Dickensheets, 1940)

Right image
Tumacácori's model room ceiling

Excellent examples of groined vaults (also known as double or cross vaults) can be found at San Ignacio and Tubutama.

Corbels

Left image
Pitiquito, corbel
Credit: (photo by George Grant, 1935)

Right image
Tumacácori model room corbel

Usually a corbel is structural -- jutting from the wall to carry a load. However, in missions they are often also used as decorative features to draw attention to something like a statue, a font, or architectural detail.

Finials

Left image
San Xavier finials
Credit: (photo by George Grant, 1935)

Right image
Tumacácori finial above model room

Although their design was not taken directly from another mission, finials (decorative posts that stand at prominent roof corners) were included at the Tumacácori museum to represent a common architectural element found in missions.

National Center for Preservation Technology and Training

Watch "History By Design: The Tumacácori Visitor Center as Historical Pastiche"

Louis Caywood states in his June 1937 year-end report:

“The Secretary of the Interior approved an allotment of Public Works funds for the new Tumacácori museum in August, 1936; the contract for construction was let to the M. M. Sundt Construction Company (of Tucson) in June. It is expected that the building will be finished early in 1938. Western Museum Laboratories of the National Park Service in Berkeley, California, had prepared 60 percent of museum exhibits at the end of the fiscal year. Plans had been drawn up by the Museum Division with some help by the Southwestern Monuments office. Exhibits will be ready for installation when the building is finished, it is hoped.”

Construction by the M. M. Sundt Company began in August, 1937 despite a heavy rainstorm that ruined the first batch of adobe bricks. At the same time a contract was let with Citizens Utility Company of Nogales and electricity finally reached the park. Work on the visitor center building was completed in December, 1937 at a total cost of $28,992.91.

While construction of the visitor center and museum was going on, the exhibits for the museum were being designed and built in Berkeley, California at the Western Museum Laboratories by artists, craftsmen and designers employed under many New Deal programs. Lorenzo Moffett and Paul Rockwood, PWA exhibit builders from the Berkeley labs, spent four days at the monument in February 1937 making paintings, drawings, photographs, and color notes for details in the dioramas being prepared in California.

Exhibit installation followed in 1938. With all installation complete, the museum was dedicated in April 1939.

National Historic Landmark

The unique assembly of features and their significance for the Tumacácori story led to the building's designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It joined the Guevavi and Calabazas missions on this exclusive list, shared by less than 50 locations in Arizona.