El Cuartel Viejo and Fort Lowell Quartermaster and Commissary Storehouse El Cuartel Viejo | |
Location | 5477, 5479, 5481, 5483, and 5487 E. Fort Lowell Rd., Tucson, Arizona |
---|---|
Coordinates | 32°15′42″N110°52′32″W / 32.26158°N 110.87563°W |
Area | 2.34 acres (0.95 ha) |
Built | 1879 |
Architect | Charles Bolsius (1942 reconstruction start) |
Architectural style | Sonoran, Pueblo Revival |
MPS | Fort Lowell MRA |
NRHP reference No. | 78003369 [1] |
Added to NRHP | December 13, 1978 |
El Cuartel Viejo is a significant and important example of Pueblo Revival architecture in the American Southwest. Rebuilt starting in 1942 from the ruins of the 1870s Fort Lowell Quartermaster and Commissary Storehouse [2] the design-build project was led by Dutch-born artist Charles Bolsius, with brother and sister-in-law Nan and Pete Bolsius. The project, a series of five residences, included distinctive hand-carved Bolsius doors, exposed beams, carved corbels, adobe fireplaces, hand-hammered tin, and a heightened sense of romanticism. [3] The property like Las Saetas to the west and its transformation over a 150-year-span reflect the changing culture and economic milieu of Southern Arizona and the American West.
The property had successive owners and uses including a farm headquarters, storage, and farm laborer housing before falling to ruin. The rambling property was purchased by the Bolsius Family in 1942. Nan and Pete Bolsius and Artist Charles Bolsius reimagined the property as a Pueblo Revival retreat for artists, winter visitors, and friends. The Bolsius family hand-reconfigured and reconstructed the building. El Cuartel Viejo is located in the Fort Lowell Historic District in east-central Tucson, Arizona.
El Cuartel Viejo was originally built as the Fort Lowell Quartermaster and Commissary Storehouse in the 1870s from unstabilized mud adobe in an Arizona territorial style. The building served as a strategic military supply function until the closure and decommissioning of the Fort. The building as part of a quarter section of property was sold by the United States Land Office to French board Severin Rambaud in 1897. A year later it was sold to Missouri-born Robert Dysart Cole who established a farming operation on the property. Cole invested in significant agricultural infrastructure including irrigation acequia which supported 25,000 strawberry plants. [4] The Cole farm expanded to include 600 apple trees, chili, and cabbage. [5] In October 1909, Cole sold the 90-acre ranch to H. Warren Shepard, [6] a wealthy starch manufacturer from Merchantville, New Jersey, who paid $14,000. [7] During this period, the adobe storehouse and commissary buildings were occupied by several Mexican families who called it comisario. Shepherd sold the farm in 1910, to Nellie and A. R. Swan, [8] who, in turn, sold it to Frank St. John. In 1935, it was acquired by Mary and Ambus Barnet Earheart who owned the property for seven years, selling it, on December 18, 1942, to the Bolsius family. [9]
When the Bolsius Family purchased the building in 1942 it was in ruin. They reconfigured the original program to create three buildings connected by a perimeter wall with a central access gate on the south facade. Using a Pueblo Revival approach they plastered the buildings in lime plaster and infused them with a high degree of detailed woodwork, elevating what had been military functional buildings into works of art that have come to define the style of the early 20th century Tucson. They named the completed property El Cuartel Viejo "The Old Barracks". to reflect its historic lineage to romantic origins.
The south facade of El Cuartel Viejo is the principal public view of the property. The facade is characterized by large irregular geometric massing of mud adobe walls rendered in lime plaster. The 1870s building was originally an exposed adobe structure with a flat roof and parapet. The facade had minimal ornamental detailing. The windows were trimmed in wood and included the territorial style triangular-shaped pedimented lintel, featuring either a plain fascia or one augmented by combinations of moldings.
Siblings Mike and Judy Margolis bought the property from the Bolsius family in the 1970s and the City of Tucson purchased the property from the Margolis family in the early 2000s,
El Cuartel Viejo was designated a contributing property to the Pima County Fort Lowell Historic District in 1976 and was individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places under the Fort Lowell Multi-Cultural District in April 1978. [10] The property is today included in the City of Tucson Fort Lowell Historic Preservation Zone, designated in 1981. [11]
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States, and is home to the University of Arizona. It is the second-largest city in Arizona behind Phoenix, with a population of 542,629 in the 2020 United States census, while the population of the entire Tucson metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is 1,043,433. The Tucson MSA forms part of the larger Tucson-Nogales combined statistical area. Both Tucson and Phoenix anchor the Arizona Sun Corridor. The city is 108 miles (174 km) southeast of Phoenix and 60 mi (100 km) north of the United States–Mexico border.
Casas Adobes is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in the northern metropolitan area of Tucson, Arizona. The population was 66,795 at the 2010 census. Casas Adobes is situated south and southwest of the town of Oro Valley, and west of the community of Catalina Foothills.
Tanque Verde is a suburban unincorporated community in Pima County, Arizona, United States, northeast of Tucson. The population was 16,195 at the 2000 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Tanque Verde as a census-designated place (CDP).
The Arizona Historical Society (AHS) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect people through the power of Arizona's history. It does this through four regional divisions. Each division has a representative museum. The statewide divisions are as follows: Southern Arizona Division in Tucson, the Central Arizona Division in Tempe, the Northern Arizona Division in Flagstaff, and the Rio Colorado Division in Yuma. It was founded in 1884.
The Pueblo Revival style or Santa Fe style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States, which draws its inspiration from Santa Fe de Nuevo México's traditional Pueblo architecture, the Spanish missions, and Territorial Style. The style developed at the beginning of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, though it is still commonly used for new buildings. Pueblo style architecture is most prevalent in the state of New Mexico; it is often blended with Territorial Revival architecture.
Charles William Bolsius was a Dutch-born American painter. He was born in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, the youngest in an upper-middle-class bourgeoisie family. His father ran the regional Gas Works and Bolsius formally studied art in The Hague before emigrating to the United States and moving to New Mexico in the early 1930s. He quickly assimilated into the art communities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe showing with the significant artist of the period. Bolsius had artistically matured within Dutch - German Expressionism. His woodblock handprints, using subject matter from the American West, capitalized on flat, bold, stark patterns and rough-hewn effects that were hallmarks of the expressionist woodblock tradition. His heavy light-filled moody paintings with cloudy brooding skies combined expressionistic influences with expansive western landscapes and the optimism of American impressionism. His work was critically recognized and exhibited at major museums and galleries throughout New Mexico and Arizona.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Pima County, Arizona.
Colorado River State Historic Park, formerly Yuma Crossing State Historic Park and Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park, and now one of the Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites on the National Register of Historic Places in the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. It is an Arizona state park in the city of Yuma, Arizona, US.
Fort Lowell was a United States Army post active from 1873 to 1891 on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. Fort Lowell was the successor to Camp Lowell, an earlier Army installation. The Army chose a location just south of the confluence of the Tanque Verde and Pantano creeks, at the point where they form the Rillito River, due to the year-round supply of water during that period. The Hohokam natives had chosen the site centuries earlier, presumably for the same reason. To this day, shards of Hohokam pottery can still be found in the area. The Army claimed a military reservation that encompassed approximately eighty square miles and extended east toward the Rincon Mountains.
Territorial Revival architecture describes the style of architecture developed in the U.S. state of New Mexico in the 1930s. It derived from New Mexico vernacular Territorial Style, an original style from Santa Fe de Nuevo México following the founding of Albuquerque in 1706. Territorial Revival incorporated elements of traditional regional building techniques with higher style elements. The style was intended to recall the Territorial Style and was extensively employed for New Mexico state government buildings in Santa Fe.
The Lowell Ranger Station compound is in the Coronado National Forest of southern Arizona, United States. It is located in Pima County, near Tucson.
San Pedro Chapel, located in the Fort Lowell area of Tucson, Arizona, is a historic and iconic architectural site with deep roots in the local community, dating back to the early 20th century. The adobe chapel was established by Mexican and Sicilian immigrants who settled in the area after the abandonment of Fort Lowell by the U.S. military. The center of a small settlement known as "El Fuerte," this area grew into village with rich cultural traditions. The chapel served as a cornerstone of community life and together with the Fort Lowell School House, the 1917 adobe Fort Lowell Union Church, and nearby small adobe houses made up the informal plaza and center of the community.
Doyle Settlement was a ranch and settlement in Pueblo, Pueblo County, Colorado. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 4, 1980.
Las Saetas is one of the great examples of Pueblo Revival architecture in the American Southwest. Rebuilt in 1935 from the ruins of the 1873 Post Traders Store the design-build project was led by Dutch-born artist Charles Bolsius, with Nan and Pete Bolsius. The project included hand-carved doors, exposed beams, carved corbels, adobe fireplaces, hand-hammered tin, and a heightened sense of romanticism. The property and its transformation over a 150-year-span reflect the changing culture and economic milieu of Southern Arizona and the American West.
Charles Bolsius House, also called "Casa Bienvenidos", is a significant example of the architectural work of artist and designer Charles Bolsius and an important example of Territorial Revival design in the American Southwest. It is located in the City of Tucson, Arizona within the Old Fort Lowell Historic District.
LeaChar House is an architectural landmark, exemplifying late 20th century Arizona Territorial Revival architecture style and serving as the final masterpiece of the architectural designer and artist, Charles Bolsius. Situated on the eastern outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, within the historically significant Tanque Verde, Arizona village area, off "Tanque Verde Loop" the LeaChar House occupies a tranquil setting amidst verdant mesquite trees part of a bosque along the banks of Tanque Verde Creek. This natural environment evokes the charm and rural landscapes surrounding Fort Lowell, where Bolsius resided prior to the urban expansion of Tucson in the mid-20th century.
El Callejón is a narrow dirt road in the heart of the Old Fort Lowell neighborhood and historic district in Tucson, Arizona, United States. This narrow lane was part of the post Fort "El Fuerte" village that was established in the 1890s and continued through the 1940s. The little road holds significant cultural, environmental, and ecological history, intertwined with the region's heritage and the families who called this place home in the 20th century. Private footpaths lead to an Acequia, an irrigation canal, called the Corbett Irrigation Ditch, which dates back to 1850s.
Fort Lowell Union Church, located in the Old Fort Lowell neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, was constructed in 1917 from mud adobe. It served as a religious, cultural, and social hub for the local ranching and farming community. The building, designed in a late Sonoran Transitional Territorial style is simple yet artistic and became a centerpiece in the historic area of Fort Lowell in the early to mid 20th century, fostering community engagement and spiritual growth for over a century.
Juan Xavier House, is a two-room adobe building located along El Callejón, on the edge of a mesquite bosque within the Fort Lowell Historic Preservation Zone in Tucson, Arizona. Built in the early to mid-20th century, the house exemplifies late traditional Sonoran farmhouse or ranch architecture, a vernacular style prevalent in Northern Mexico and Southern Arizona. The house is closely associated with its namesake, Juan Xavier, a noted member of the Tohono O'odham tribal council and a figure involved in Tucson's cultural and artistic communities.