The Persistence of Old Roads by Helen Erickson

For the better part of history transportation routes evolved in an organic manner, adapting to geography and to the needs and means of the people they served. But twentieth century urban renewal planning and design imposed new patterns of movement in urban areas. Small blocks were gathered into larger units and small roads were widened to serve the growing needs of automobile transportation. Yet it was difficult to erase completely the old roads, and they persisted, imbedded in property boundaries and the underlying geography of place. Although obscured by redesign and disconnectedness, the traces of these persistent roads provide a direct link to the past and its stories. Tucson, Arizona, is a city of persistent roads. The ancient indigenous trail that ran north and south along the water course of the Santa Cruz River became the Calle Real of the Spanish entrada into the new world. North of Tucson, the river’s flow sank below ground, and thus Tucson became the northernmost point of the long route south to Mexico City. In 1775 the Spanish constructed their Presidio along the trail, above the flood plain of the river and adjacent to a deep arroyo. The Presidio in its turn became a point of reference for the roads that radiated out from the Calle. During the nineteenth century travelers from the east heading to California followed various routes west across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, but all these routes eventually intersected with the Calle before turning north along the Santa Cruz River. In 1858 the Overland Mail, coming from the east, selected the trail into Tucson that foreshadowed the interstate highway and the railroad, establishing the town as a major intersection of Mexican and Anglo-American culture. In 1866 – after the Civil War – the construction of Camp Lowell on level ground east of the city followed a traditional military alignment based on the points of the compass. Today the roads of the old Spanish grid and those of the military grid intersect in the central city. When in 1877 Tucson became a township under the government of the United States, the old Spanish streets were given new and politically correct English names and the Calle Real become Main Avenue, but the layout of the streets for the most part remained intact. Only with the advent of urban renewal in the twentieth century did large overlays deliberately obscure the old patterns, although in many cases these were concealed rather than erased. An exploration of historic maps, aerial photographs and present-day GIS maps reveals how the shadows of the old roads remain visible today, a point of connection to Tucson’s past and a physical context for its stories. Directly linked to the conference theme of crossroads, the presentation will raise questions of methodology, mapping and means for discovering, sharing and interpreting these persistent historic roads. Presenter: Helen Erickson Helen Erickson holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Graduate Certificate in Heritage Conservation from the University of Arizona. As an intern with Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, she completed the conservation master plan and the draft National Register Nomination for the Eckbo-designed landscape at the Tucson Community Center. Other recent and current projects include landscape documentation and analysis at the Faraway Ranch Historic District in the Chiricahua National Monument, architectural assessment at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and cultural landscape planning at the Fort Apache Historic District. Appointed to the Tucson-Pima Country Historic Commission and Plans Review Subcommittee, Helen also chairs the Historic Landscapes Subcommittee. She is active in the Arizona Chapter of the Historic American Landscapes Survey and is a member of the national ASLA HALS Subcommittee. She holds a BA from Harvard University and an MMus from the Yale University School of Music, and spent the first part of her career as a performing arts teacher and administrator.