Tucson: The Town
Tucson has two main historic centers: the downtown core along the (usually bone-dry) Santa Cruz River, bisected by Congress Street, and the quarter around the University of Arizona campus, a mile to the east. The city was founded in the late 1700s by Catholic missionaries who came from Mexico, then a Spanish colony, to convert the Pima Indians. Nothing very substantial remains from this era, but hundreds of artifacts are now displayed inside the many historic adobe homes in and around the El Presidio district of cafés, art galleries and B&Bs, two blocks north of Broadway. Access to much of El Presidio is controlled by the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block complex, 140 N Main Ave (June-Aug Tues-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; Sept-May Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; $5, free Sun). The main building displays changing exhibitions of modern paintings and sculpture, while an adjoining adobe holds an excellent collection of folk art and pre-Columbian artifacts. The district's oldest house, La Casa Cordova, showcases the city's Mexican heritage.Three blocks south, engulfed by the Tucson Convention Center complex, the adobe Sosa-Carrillo-Frémont House , 151 S Granada Ave (Wed-Sat 10am-4pm; free), is the sole survivor of a neighborhood torn down during the 1960s. Built for merchant Leopoldo Carrillo in 1858, it was briefly rented by former explorer John C Frémont when he was Governor of Arizona in 1878. Though much restored, it offers a vivid sense of the more civilized side of frontier life.
Tucson's other main area of interest, around the University of Arizona, spreads between Sixth Street and Speedway Boulevard, a mile east of downtown. Its highlights are the on-campus Arizona State Museum (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; free), where an exceptionally comprehensive assembly of Native American artifacts from the very earliest days traces the evolution of the various Southwest tribes, and the Center for Creative Photography (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun noon-5pm; $2), featuring work by Ansel Adams, among other modern masters.
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