Mission Revival Style architecture - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement

Architectural style

Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...

that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism

Revivalism (architecture)

Revivalism in architecture is the use of visual styles that consciously echo the style of a previous architectural era.There were a number of architectural revivalist movements in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries....

and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California

Spanish missions in California

The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...

.

The Mission Revival movement enjoyed its greatest popularity between 1890 and 1915, through numerous residential, commercial, and institutional structures, particularly with schools and railroad depots, that used this easily recognizable architectural style. It evolved into and was subsumed by the more articulated Spanish Colonial Revival Style

Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture

The Spanish Colonial Revival Style was a United States architectural stylistic movement that came about in the early 20th century, starting in California and Florida as a regional expression related to history, environment, and nostalgia...

, established in 1915 at the Panama–California Exposition.

Influences

All of the colonial Las Californias

Las Californias

The Californias, or in — - was the name given by the Spanish to their northwestern territory of New Spain, comprising the present day states of Baja California and Baja California Sur on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico; and the present day U.S. state of California in the United States of...

missions (active 1769—1823), their compound's church and support structures, shared certain design characteristics. This is due to several factors: to the models for religious buildings the founding Franciscan missionaries

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

had seen and emulated being Renaissance and Baroque examples in Spain and colonial Mexico City in New Spain

New Spain

New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...

; to the limited availability and variety of building materials besides adobe

Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...

near mission sites or imported to Alta California

Alta California

Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...

; and, to both the missionaries and indigenous Californians

Indigenous peoples of California

The Indigenous peoples of California are the indigenous inhabitants who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. With over one hundred federally recognized tribes, California has the largest Native...

having minimal 'western' construction skills and experience.

Characteristics

Originals
The missions' style of necessity and security evolved around an enclosed courtyard

Courtyard

A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....

, using massive adobe walls with broad unadorned plaster surfaces, limited fenestration

Window

A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...

and door

Door

A door is a movable structure used to open and close off an entrance, typically consisting of a panel that swings on hinges or that slides or rotates inside of a space....

piercing, low-pitched roofs with projecting wide eaves and non-flammable clay roof tiles, and thick arch

Arch

An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...

es springing from pier

Pier (architecture)

In architecture, a pier is an upright support for a superstructure, such as an arch or bridge. Sections of wall between openings function as piers. The simplest cross section of the pier is square, or rectangular, although other shapes are also common, such as the richly articulated piers of Donato...

s. Exterior walls were coated with white plaster

Plaster

Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...

(stucco

Stucco

Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...

), which with wide side eaves shielded the adobe

Adobe

brick

Brick

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...

walls from rain. Other features included long exterior arcade

Arcade (architecture)

An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....

s, an enfilade

Enfilade (architecture)

In architecture, an enfilade is a suite of rooms formally aligned with each other. This was a common feature in grand European architecture from the Baroque period onwards, although there are earlier examples, such as the Vatican stanze...

of interior rooms and halls

Halls

Halls is a plural of the word hall.Halls may also refer to:* Halls of residence, a type of student housing or dormitory* Halls , a brand of cough drop* Halls, Tennessee, a town in West Tennessee...

s, semi-independent bell gables, and at more prosperous missions curved 'Baroque' gable

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...

s on the principle facade with tower

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...

s.

Revival
These architectural elements were replicated, in varying degrees, accuracy, and proportions, in the new Mission Revival structures. Simultaneous with the original style's revival was an awareness in California of the actual missions fading into ruins and their restoration campaigns, and nostalgia in the quickly changing state for a 'simpler time' as the novel Ramona
Ramona
Ramona is a 1884 United States historical novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. It is the story of a Scots-Native American orphan girl in Southern California, who suffers racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely...

popularized at the time. Contemporary construction materials and practices, earthquake codes, and building uses render the structural and religious architectural components primarily aesthetic decoration, while the service elements such as tile roofing, solar shielding of walls and interiors, and outdoor shade arcades and courtyards are still functional.

The Mission Revival style of architecture, and subsequent Spanish Colonial Revival style, have historical, narrative—nostalgic, cultural—environmental associations, and climate appropriateness that have made for a predominant historical regional vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...

style in the Southwestern United States

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

, especially in California.

In prose

Give me neither Romanesque nor Gothic;

much less Italian Renaissance,

and least of all English Colonial —

this is California — give me Mission.

Anonymous, 1924

Mission Revival Style examples

The Mission Inn

Mission Inn

The Mission Inn, now known as The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, is a historic landmark hotel in downtown Riverside, California. Although a composite of many architectural styles, it is generally considered the largest Mission Revival Style building in the United States.-History:The property began as a...

in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

is one of the largest extant Mission Revival Style buildings in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Located in Riverside

Riverside, California

Riverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...

, it has been restored, with tours of the style's expression.

Other structures designed in the Mission Revival Style include:

La Castaňeda Hotel
Las Vegas (Amtrak station)
The Las Vegas Amtrak station is located at Railroad Street & Lincoln Avenue in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The station is near the Hotel Castañeda, a former hotel built by Fred Harvey for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. The architects were Frederick Roehrig and A...

, Harvey House
Fred Harvey Company
The origin of the Fred Harvey Company can be traced to the 1875 opening of two railroad eating houses located at Wallace, Kansas and Hugo, Colorado on the Kansas Pacific Railway. These cafés were opened by Fred Harvey, then a freight agent for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad...

in Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas is a city in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities both named Las Vegas, west Las Vegas and east Las Vegas , divided by the Gallinas River, retain distinct characters and separate, rival school districts. The population was 14,565 at the 2000...

, opened January 1, 1899. the first Mission Revival style building in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, arch: Frederick Roehrig
Frederick Roehrig
Frederick Louis Roehrig was an early 20th-century American architect. Roehrig was born in LeRoy, New York, the son of the noted "orientalist and philoligist," Frederick L.O. Roehrig He graduated from Cornell University in 1883 and also studied architecture in England and France...

and A. Reinsch;
Alvarado Hotel
Alvarado Transportation Center
The Alvarado Transportation Center is a multimodal transit hub located at 100 1st Street SW in Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.The complex was built as a hub for Albuquerque's regional transit system and as a replacement for Albuquerque's previous bus depot and train station...

in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...

, completed in 1902 for Fred Harvey; (demolished in 1970)
Arrowhead Springs Resort & Hotel, in San Bernardino Mountains
San Bernardino Mountains
The San Bernardino Mountains are a short transverse mountain range north and east of San Bernardino in Southern California in the United States. The mountains run for approximately 60 miles east-west on the southern edge of the Mojave Desert in southwestern San Bernardino County, north of the...

, Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

; (1939), (mission moderne), arch: Paul Williams
Paul Williams (architect)
Paul Revere Williams, FAIA was a Los Angeles-based, American architect. He practiced largely in Southern California and designed the homes of numerous stars including Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz, Lon Chaney, and Charles Correll...

, interiors Dorothy Draper
Dorothy Draper
Dorothy Draper was an American interior decorator. She helped inspire a generation of home improvement devotees with her 1939 book Decorating is Fun!, subtitled "How to Be Your Own Decorator". Her style was very anti-minimalist, and would use bright, exuberant colors and large prints that would...

.
Ponce De Leon Hotel
Ponce De Leon Boutique Hotel
The Ponce De Leon Boutique Hotel is a historic landmark and Mission Revival hotel in Downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. It is located at 95 Central Avenue, and on the corner of 10 Beach Drive...

in St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...

, completed in 1922
Caliente Railroad Depot
Caliente Railroad Depot
Caliente Railroad Depot is a historic Mission Revival Style railway station, located in Caliente, Lincoln County, Nevada. The Depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is Nevada Historical Marker number 249.-History:...

, in Caliente, Nevada
Caliente, Nevada
Caliente , formerly known as Culverwell and Calientes is a town in Lincoln County, Nevada, United States. Its elevation is 4,300 feet . The population was 1,123 at the 2000 census...

, completed in 1923
California Baptist University
California Baptist University
California Baptist University is a private, Christian, liberal arts university located in Riverside, California, United States. Originally founded in 1950 as California Baptist College, it is controlled by the California Southern Baptist Convention, an organization affiliated with the Southern...

, in Riverside, California, original school buildings built for Neighbors of Woodcraft, completed in 1921
Castañeda Hotel
Las Vegas (Amtrak station)
The Las Vegas Amtrak station is located at Railroad Street & Lincoln Avenue in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The station is near the Hotel Castañeda, a former hotel built by Fred Harvey for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. The architects were Frederick Roehrig and A...

in Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas is a city in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities both named Las Vegas, west Las Vegas and east Las Vegas , divided by the Gallinas River, retain distinct characters and separate, rival school districts. The population was 14,565 at the 2000...

, completed in 1898 for Fred Harvey Company
Fred Harvey Company
The origin of the Fred Harvey Company can be traced to the 1875 opening of two railroad eating houses located at Wallace, Kansas and Hugo, Colorado on the Kansas Pacific Railway. These cafés were opened by Fred Harvey, then a freight agent for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad...
Four Roses
Four Roses
Four Roses is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey brand owned by the Kirin Brewery Company of Japan. The brand was established in 1888. The trademark was probably named for company founder Rufus Mathewson Rose, his brother Origen, and their two sons, although it is somewhat unclear, as several...

Distillery, in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
Lawrenceburg is a city in Anderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 10,505 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Anderson County...

. built in 1910.
Francis Lederer
Francis Lederer
Francis Lederer was a film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States.-Europe:...

estate and residence, in West Hills, Los Angeles, completed 1936
Iao Theater
Iao Theater
The Iao Theater is a Spanish Mission style theater opened in 1928, in the city of Wailuku, Maui Hawaii. It was originally both a movie and vaudeville house, until it fell into disrepair in the 1980s. Facing possible demolition, in 1994, it was listed on the State of Hawaii's Register of Historic...

, in Wailuku, Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...

—Hawaii, built in 1928.
Kelso Depot
Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel
The Kelso Depot, Restaurant and Employees Hotel or Kelso Depot, now also the Mojave National Preserve Visitors Center, is located in the Mojave Desert within the National Park Service Mojave National Preserve, on Kelbaker Road in Kelso, California, between Baker and Interstate 15 to the north and...

, in Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...

—Mojave National Preserve
Mojave National Preserve
Mojave National Preserve is located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, 1994 with the passage of the California Desert Protection Act by the US Congress...

, California, completed in 1923 for Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....

.
Lederer Stables—Canoga Mission Gallery, in West Hills, Los Angeles, completed in 1936
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner Building
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
The Los Angeles Herald Examiner was a major Los Angeles daily newspaper, published Monday through Friday in the afternoon, and in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. It was part of the Hearst syndicate. The afternoon Herald-Express and the morning Examiner, both of which had been publishing in...

; Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan was an American architect. The architect of over 700 buildings in California, she is best known for her work on Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California...

, Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

, 1915.
Mission Inn
Mission Inn
The Mission Inn, now known as The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, is a historic landmark hotel in downtown Riverside, California. Although a composite of many architectural styles, it is generally considered the largest Mission Revival Style building in the United States.-History:The property began as a...

, in Riverside, California, completed in 1932
Santa Fe Railway Depot
San Juan Capistrano (Amtrak station)
The San Juan Capistrano Depot is a train station in San Juan Capistrano, California, United States served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system, and Metrolink, a commuter railroad.-History:...

in San Juan Capistrano, California
San Juan Capistrano, California
San Juan Capistrano is a city in southern Orange County, California, located approximately southeast of Downtown Santa Ana. The current OMB metropolitan designation for San Juan Capistrano and the Orange County Area is “Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA.” The population was 34,593 at the 2010 census,...

, completed in 1894
San Gabriel Civic Auditorium, in San Gabriel, California
San Gabriel, California
San Gabriel is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is named after the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, founded by Junipero Serra. The city grew outward from the mission and in 1852 became the original township of Los Angeles County. San Gabriel was incorporated in 1913...

, completed in 1927
Southern Pacific Railroad depot
Burlingame (Caltrain station)
Burlingame Station is a Caltrain station in Burlingame, California. The building, in the Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission Revival architecture styles was built in 1894, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.-Station amenities:...

in Burlingame, California
Burlingame, California
Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame. It is renowned for its many surviving examples of Victorian architecture, its affluence, and...

, completed in 1894
Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, main quad, in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...

, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was a successful architecture firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, operating between 1886 and 1915, with extensive commissions in monumental civic and collegiate architecture in the spirit and style of Henry Hobson Richardson....

; completed in 1891; site-landscape master plan Frederic Law Olmstead.
Union Station
Union Station (San Diego)
Union Station in San Diego, California, also known as the Santa Fe Depot, is a train station built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to replace the small Victorian-style structure erected in 1887 for the California Southern Railroad Company. The Spanish Colonial Revival style station is...

, in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, completed in 1915.
Villa Rockledge, in Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach is a seaside resort city and artist community located in southern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southwest of the county seat of Santa Ana...

, completed in 1935

External links

Northern Arizona University: Mission Revival Style - architectural examples Gallery
Hewn and Hammered - dedicated to discussion of the American Arts & Crafts movement, and its Mission Revival component.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Influences

Characteristics

Mission Revival Style examples

See also

External links