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Recently,
Cornerstones marked the successful completion of the Socorro Mission
Preservation Project. Read the press release below. For more
information, contact Cornerstones Community Partnerships (contact info at
the bottom of the page). Also, visit the links to past US/ICOMOS
interns hosted by Cornerstones: Cornerstones recently co-hosted a reception/fundraiser
for US/ICOMOS in Santa Fe.
To expand our activities with Cornerstones, US/ICOMOS is developing plans for a fall 2007 study tour of adobe architecture in New Mexico and northern Mexico and possibly an annual adobe restoration workshop. |
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CEREMONY MARKS SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE SOCORRO MISSION PRESERVATION PROJECT Special Mass and community celebration, December 7,
2005, in Socorro, TX,
The Socorro Mission, the full name of which is Nuestra Señora de la Limpia Concepción de los Piros de Socorro del Sur, is also affectionately known as La Purísima (the Most Pure). The variety of names used for the mission by the 313 year-old parish reflects a fascinating history. Piro Indian and Spanish refugees from New Mexico who fled the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 established Socorro. They constructed the first mission at Socorro by 1691, about a mile from the present building. Devastating floods swept the first church away in 1740 and also destroyed its successor, which had been erected close to the site of the current mission in 1829.
Over time, however, certain alterations – in particular applications beginning in the 1920s of hard cement-based products to the interior and exterior walls of the building – initiated differential movement in the walls and trapped water within them. Inadequate window and door lintels, drainage problems, the removal of interior structural and architectural braces, deteriorated mortar joints, and the lack of adequate routine maintenance also threatened the building with collapse prior to the start of the preservation project.
From start to finish, the Socorro Mission Preservation Project crew has successfully trained and supervised workers from diverse groups including ‘welfare-to-work’ adult trainees, clients with the felony and juvenile court systems and students from nearby K.E.Y.S. Academy. Contributors to the successful volunteer program include: the Upper Rio Grande/Texas Workforce Commission; Judge Ruben Lujan’s Juvenile Court System (Clint, Texas); West Texas Community Supervision and Corrections Department; Texas Department of Family and Protective Services; Lee and Beulah Moore Children’s Home; Schaeffer Halfway House; the Center for Civic Engagement (UTEP); the Southwest Key program; and electricians from the El Paso Community College Advanced Technical Center.
Events scheduled on December 7, 2005 include a special Mass at 7:00 p.m., followed by a community potluck in the new parish hall adjacent to the historic mission. If You Go: Socorro Mission Preservation Celebration Wednesday, 7 PM, Special Mass Socorro Mission is located at 328 S. Nevarez Road, Socorro, Texas 79927 For information phone: 915.858.4655
Right:
Donna Vogel
(Executive Director) and James Hare of Cornerstones Community
Partnerships, |
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Santa Fe, November 6, 2005 – Ceremonies at the mission of Nuestra
Señora de la Limpia Concepción to celebrate completion of the extensive
Socorro Mission Preservation Project will take place at the mission in
Socorro, Texas, December 7, 2005. The Most Reverend Armando X. Ochoa,
D.D., the Bishop of El Paso, will officiate at the special mass, to
which the public is cordially invited. A community potluck co-hosted by
the project’s principal local partners – the Catholic Diocese of El
Paso, Historic Missions Restoration, Inc., the La Purísima Restoration
Committee and Cornerstones Community Partnerships of Santa Fe, New
Mexico – will immediately follow the Mass. 
The
present building was rededicated in 1843, when Fray Andrés de Jesus
Comacho constructed the nave. The nave used interior roof supports
(decorated corbels and vigas) that archaeological evidence
suggests were salvaged from the late-17th and early-18th century mission
buildings. Other physical additions and alterations over the intervening
162 years have resulted in the distinctive edifice that remains at the
heart of the Socorro community today. Pat Taylor, Program Manager for
Cornerstones’ projects in southern New Mexico, emphasizes the importance
of the Socorro Mission Preservation Project both for Cornerstones and
the Southwest noting that, "This amazing structure is a testament to the
original builders. It is one of the most important structures
historically and culturally along this part of the Camino Real."
The mission is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (1972)
and is a Texas Historic Landmark (1963).
In
1998, Cornerstones Community Partnerships was invited by La Purísima
Restoration Committee in Socorro to conduct a preliminary Conditions
Assessment at the massive adobe building. The walls of the mission are
five-feet thick at the base, the main nave measures 22 by 100 feet, and
the ceiling in the nave is 26 feet high. The efforts of Cornerstones and
the Socorro community have eliminated roof leaks, replaced the concrete
"collar" at the base of the church walls with adobe, repaired
deteriorated portions of the walls and roof parapet, stabilized the bell
tower and façade, and re-plastered the interior using yeso
(gypsum). The exterior interior walls have been covered with permeable
mud and lime plasters. Field staff and volunteers made approximately
20,000 new adobe bricks for use during the preservation effort.
Invaluable new experience in dealing with the structural challenges
posed by the ancient mission has also been added to the time-tested
expertise of Cornerstones’ preservation project coordinators and to the
knowledge base of the local community. 
A
significant outcome of the project has been the amount of new
archaeological, historical and architectural research conducted in
collaboration with the Sociology Anthropology Department of the
University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and the El Paso Archaeological
Society (EPAS). Support from the International Council on Monuments and
Sites (ICOMOS) also enabled Jacobo Herdoiza (in the yellow hardhat), an
Ecuadorian architect and ICOMOS intern, to prepare a series of
unprecedented architectural drawings based (see image at left) on
research originally conducted by Jesuit archivist Ernest J. Burrus.
Herdoiza’s drawings have been included in an informative brochure
authored by Cornerstones’ Jean Fulton, Socorro Mission Preservation
Assistant Project Coordinator. In addition to Ecuador, the project has
hosted ICOMOS interns from South Africa, Ghana, Mexico, and Australia.
The North American Community Service (NACS) project has also supplied
interns from Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Collaboration among many additional organizations – Native American,
Hispanic and Mexican – is credited with the success of this major
preservation initiative. Generous individual, private, corporate, and
public benefactors donated the necessary funding and in-kind services.
The Houston Endowment provided core support. Texas State Senator Eliot
Shapleigh, U.S. Congressman Sylvestre Reyes, and U.S. Senator Kay Bailey
Hutchison were instrumental in helping to secure a key Save America’s
Treasures appropriation for the project. Save America’s Treasures
is the federal "bricks and mortar" preservation program that is
administered by the National Park Service (U.S. Department of the
Interior).
About
Cornerstones: Since 1986, Cornerstones Community Partnerships has
worked to preserve architectural heritage and community traditions at
more than 300 locations in New Mexico and the Southwest. Cornerstones
has built a national reputation for the creative use of historic
preservation as a tool for community revitalization and as a method for
engaging both youths and adults in the conservation of traditional
building skills and the affirmation of cultural traditions. Cornerstones
is a non-profit organization located at 227 Otero St., Santa Fe, New
Mexico, 87501. For more information or to make a tax-deductible
donation, visit the Cornerstones web site at www.cstones.org