| 1776 |
(Summer of) - Spanish Presidio or Fort beginning; approximately 150 soldiers and citizens.
|
| 1830 |
San Agustin del Tucson grew into a Mexican village spreading south beyond the 700 foot square walls of the Presidio.
|
| 1846 |
American soldiers first exposed to Mexican Tucson; population approximately 200-300 people; buildings were of sundried adobe
bricks, one-story construction, generally one room, few windows or doors, fronts flush with streets, in abutted rows, dirt
floors and beamed or viga ceilings. These were covered at right angles by savings (sahuaro ribbing or ocotillo stocks) then
with several layers of straw and mud. The inner ceiling was sometimes sheeted over with unbleached muslin or manta.
|
| 1850's |
Little change; still a frontier Hispanic-Mexican town; few refinements or design features of Mexican buildings further south.
|
| 1854 |
Americans began to settle in Tucson; 1853, Pete Kitchen arrived in Arizona; little Anglo influence apparent; Southern Arizona
purchased in the Gadsden Purchase.
|
| 1858 |
Butterfield's overland mail begins operation through Tucson.
|
| 1860's |
Great influx of American soldiers; major mercantile and freighting businesses were established; most trading done with Sonora
in Mexico; first structures began to appear in the Barrio.
|
| 1861 |
Civil War began April 12; Butterfield stage route is discontinued through the Southwest.
|
| 1863 |
Arizona becomes a United States Territory.
|
| 1867 |
Tucson named the capital of the Territory and so remained for a decade.
|
| 1870's |
New homes built; prominent Americans such as E. N. Fish and Hiram S. Stevens reflected frontier Spanish-Mexican style and
building materials; existence of lumber mills in Santa Rita Mountains but lumber still at a premium; commercial and institutional
buildings also reflected the Spanish-Mexican style; few finished with plaster; unlit, unpaved streets without sidewalks; introduction
of wooden door and window frames; geographical area relating to the Barrio was fully developed by this time and contained
excellent examples of the first "territorial style" (i.e., a row or townhouse
[page 152]
of adobe with flat roof, few openings, little or no wooden trim, a character of formal simplicity); Steven's house operated
as a Tucson hotel; evidence of Balloon Framing System.
|
| 1871 |
Tucson incorporated as a village.
|
| 1873 |
Tucson offered free lots to citizens for $100 in improvements and six months residence on them; first telegraph reaching
Tucson; population approximately 28,000.
|
| 1877 |
Tucson incorporated as a city.
|
| 1879 |
First shingle roofs; gas introduced.
|
| 1880's |
The railroad has come; the worst of the Indian wars were over; Tucson becomes a major mercantile center of the Territory stimulated
by the mining development to the south and east; trading and buying done with California; communication, shipping and rapid
travel come; banking housed developed; city has three flour mills, two breweries, eight large merchantile houses and 15 carpentry
shops' fired brick comes to the building trade; lumber being shipped all over Arizona from Tucson; growth of Morman designed
buildings; new look; great increase in population.
Styles in the more pragmatic Victorian sense arrive in Tucson; inherent structural problem for building two or more stories
made the adobe tradition impractical for new commercial buildings; fusion of styles to form a transitional style; period of
best representation; residential buildings (several within the Barrio) reflect the second Territorial Style (i.e., detached
adobe walled structures capped with a roof, usually pyramidal, which sweeps out to cover wooden porches on one or all sides
of the building; St. Mary's Hospital opened (non-military).
|
| 1881 |
Telephones introduced; a city water works and glass works in process of construction; steam generated electricity about to
be introduced; regular construction of sidewalks and establishment of street grades undertaken; hardware from the East (door
knobs, hinges, etc.); building types largely a conglomeration of synthesis of forms.
|
| 1884 |
Electricity introduced, Feb. 4 (moonlights).
|
| 1887 |
Construction begun on first building of University of Arizona.
|
| 1890 |
Arizona's population, 88,243.
|
| 1900 |
Arizona's population, 122,931.
|
| 1906 |
Antiquities Act of 1906 written to protect historic monuments on government property; first federal legislation devoted to
historic preservation; restoration work begun on San Xavier del Bac Mission.
|
| 1912 |
Arizona becomes the 48th state of the Union.
|
| 1915 |
San Diego Exposition stimulates revival of interest in Spanish Colonial architecture (i.e., the romantic tendencies concerned
with Tucson's architectural heritage of territorial past).
|
| 1916 |
National Park Service created in an attempt to preserve natural elements; part of the old capitol buildings in Tucson torn
down.
|
| 1920 |
Arizona's population, 334,162; new buildings of stucco and tile; roof with arches and mosaic tile decoration signify the
false "revivalistic" attitude for Tucson's past (more commonly, "Commercial Territorialism").
|
| 1930 |
Arizona's population, 435,573.
|
| 1935 |
Historic Sites Act created to stimulate preservation.
|
| 1938 |
Last of old capitol buildings in Tucson torn down.
|
| 1963 |
A call to the "Preservation of our common cultural heritage as a moral obligation which rests squarely on the shoulders of
every citizen"; A Report on Principles and Guidelines for Historic Preservation in the U.S.; report on Williamsburg, Seminar
on Preservation and Restoration, Sept. 8-11, 1963, National Trust for Historic Preservation.
|
| 1966-71 |
Tucson Community Center development; destruction of much of the "Barrio Libre"; Restoration of the Carrillo-Fremont House
in the TCC complex and proposed restoration of the Samaniego House and the El Charro Restaurant building in the Placita Shops
complex.
|
| 1968-71 |
Butterfield Freeway corridor proposed through the Barrio.
|
| 1971 |
Major controversy develops over the proposed freeway corridor; rehabilitation of Barrio structures begun under private initiative;
proposals for the creation of a historic zoning ordinance by the City; first major study of the "Barrio Libre" undertaken
by students in the College of Architecture; El Tiradito entered upon the National Register of Historic Places (November, 1971).
|
