Neighborhood DNA

Joe Pagac keeps amazing me with his creativity (…you too, I'll bet). What's now downtown Tucson, and the city-to-come around it, grew up and prospered when the railroad came in 1880. The Barrio Viejo neighborhood, on the south edge of downtown, grew up in the decades after… the railroad was part of its DNA. Joe showed that intertwined destiny in this mural along a driveway on Simpson Street:

The driveway is narrow, and my camera couldn't catch it all. Below is the original photo, which I stretched with my favorite free photo editor GIMP to make the version above:

Here's what you'll see from the street:

If the homeowners are available, they'll let you into the driveway. (Their dog might bark and be a "doorbell".) Tim told me the story of the mural:

"The man on the left is Frank Bone. He lived there many years. He was distinct because he always wore a white linen suit and a white pith helmet walking around downtown. We didn't know what he looked like, so we painted him from the back. The people on the right — the couple — built this house in 1910. The mural represents the neighborhood. It's got our home and our neighbors' homes, but it also has trains and the homes in the shape of DNA because it's part of the neighborhood's DNA: the trains and the train sounds."

You can read more about this mural, and others in the neighborhood, in the Arizona Daily Star article This historic Tucson neighborhood is exploding with works of art. It adds to Tim's comments: "…Andres and Guadalupe Herrera, who built the home in 1906, as well as Frank Bone, who resided there for more than 40 years."

Here are closeups from left to right:

I took advantage of a quieter downtown to snap a lot of photos on Veterans Day, November 11.