Historic Structure Report: Tumacacori National Monument, Arizona

Crosby, Anthony

The Historic Structure Report is basically an edited version of twoprevious architectural reports, which were the basis for the work atTumacacori. In addition, it summarizes the preservation project andmakes a few recommendations for the future. The actual detail andextent of discussions vary from subject to subject. For example, theanalysis and the resulting conservation of the painted plaster of the domeos more technical in nature than much of the other preservation work ~ndis therefore described in much more detail. This difference is generallyconsistent throughout the document. This Historic Structure Report is the final completion report of a preservation project that basically began when a group ol architects, historians, archeologists, end managers from the National Park Service gathered at Tumacacori National Monument, Arizona, in January 1975. The impetus for the meeting was the closing of the church to visitors one month before for fear that falling plaster would cause a serious injury. Decisions had lo be made that would comprehensively address what appeared to be critical preservation problems. How severe were the problems and how should they be resolved? More importantly, what steps would the Park Service take in determining the severity of the problems and in undertaking the necessary resolutions? The first step--actual planning--was initiated at the January 1975 meeting. It was a year before comprehensive on-site analysis began, but the first actual research was undertaken by the Western Archeological Center in the analysis of past archeological projects in order to synthesize the data and analyze the potential for future archeology. An important result of this report, in addition to fulfilling the goals of the research design, was the information related to the archeological and architectural preservation, which was an <lid in specific decisions for preservation treatments (NPS, USDI 1975). The other two principal disciplines that would be most directly involved in the project, architecture and history, would be represented by a histoical architect and a historian from the Denver Service Center's Division or Historic Preservation. I was the historical architect and Berle Clemensen was the historian who would look at the history of Tumacacori since it was abandoned in 1848. This part of the history was extremely important since the project was intended and designed to be directed to preservation problems and not to a further understanding of the mission community, including its architecture, which would certainly have been valuable for interpretive purposes. This history was meant to identify what had been done at Tumacacori since 1919 when Frank Pinkley first assigned A. 5. Noon to clean out the nave of the church. In order to design solutions to preservation problems, it was critical to know what preservation and restoration work had been done in the past, which methods had been successful, and which ones had not been successful. This history research began in the fall of 1975.

Historic Structure Report: Tumacacori National Monument, Arizona

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