San Xavier Mission Looking North

[above] Construction started on the Spanish mission in 1774, and the Indian village of San Xavier del Bac slowly evolved. By 1946 a new school house was under construction for the surrounding Indian community.

[top right] By 1995 a major restoration project to preserve the mission’s structural elements as well as the interior artwork had begun.

[right] And as evidenced in the 2005 photograph, shrouded in scaffolding, it remains an ongoing commitment.