Tucson Plant Materials Center – Tucson AZ

Description

“Public Works Administration funds financed construction of the Tucson Plant Materials Center. Hispanic workers hired with Federal Emergency Relief Administration funds made the adobe blocks. The eight original buildings at the center were later assembled by Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees between 1935 and 1941. Designed according to the Pueblo Revival style which imitates early southwestern Native American and Spanish architecture, the buildings were constructed with flat roofs, rounded corners, vigas (exposed wooden roof beams), and rough-carved, wooden porches. Today only two buildings, the administration and the general utility building, remain. The Tucson Plant Materials Center was one of 48 nurseries established in the West by the Soil Conservation Service after 1935. The purpose of the nursery was to study and propagate plants for erosion control. Within two years this nursery and another in Safford had produced over 41,000 trees and shrubs for distribution. Today the Tucson Plant Materials Center is still involved in propagation of native plants beneficial to conservation efforts.”

(content.library.arizona.edu)