Best '94-'95 Historical Renovation
San Xavier Del Bac
READERS' AND STAFF PICK: The good folks at the Patronato of San Xavier have been plugging away for years to restore the eighteenth-century murals at the historic San Xavier mission south of Tucson, and their efforts are paying off handsomely. The walls of the chapel again sing praises to their makers celestial and earthly, thanks to the work of a multi-national team of restorers, among them several young Tohono O'odham artists. It's a must-see for visitors and residents alike.
1950 W. San Xavier RoadREADERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: WomanKraft, 388 S. Stone Ave., is a gallery, a bookstore, a kids' arts space and a school. WomanKraft, whose motto is "more than a gallery: for a non-sexist culture through the arts," has its building in pretty good shape now. The renovation began in 1993, when the group bought the old Queen Anne, having been evicted from their longtime rental space on Congress Street. The building, a jewel fallen on hard times, was constructed in 1918 by a tailor-in-love as a wedding gift for his wife. The house was originally an elegant town home with hardwood floors, porches upstairs and down, and a circular two-story turret that gave the place its current nickname, The Castle. But later, it's rumored, the place degenerated into a bordello. From there it was an easy slide to flophouse and, finally, an abandoned wreck, frequented by street people seeking temporary shelter. It would warm the tailor's loving heart to see what the women of WomanKraft and assorted friends and volunteers have done to the place. They've scraped paint off the glass that made antique French doors opaque, they've laid tile, they've painted, they've patched walls. A roofer donated his labor, a glazier his glass and a passing Tohono O'Odham man his way with a trencher. Gone are the debris, the peeling wallpaper, the broken windowpanes, the layers and layers of urine-soaked carpet. In their place, if not exactly a restoration of Williamsburg elegance, is a funky, bright space with refinished floors and repainted walls. Out front, two fine pillars with playful inlaid mosaics announce the violet-trimmed house as an arts space. Wholly owned (mortgaged, anyway) by the artists themselves, it's the very model of artists' equity.
