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06 · Arts & Crafts to Art Deco

Mission Revival

c. 1890–1930

Curved gable-top walls, white stucco, arcades, and red tile roofs borrowed from Spanish missions.

Look for

Curved parapet gable Stucco wall Red tile roof
Mission Inn, Riverside, California: an example of Mission Revival architecture
Mission Inn, Riverside, California. Photo: unknown, Public domain
Stanford University Main Quad, Stanford, California
Stanford University Main Quad Stanford, California · Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA, CC BY 2.0
Union Station, Los Angeles
Union Station Los Angeles · Shesmax, CC BY-SA 4.0
Castañeda Hotel, Las Vegas, New Mexico
Castañeda Hotel Las Vegas, New Mexico · John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0
Santa Fe Depot, San Diego
Santa Fe Depot San Diego · User:Oakshade, CC BY 2.5

what it is

Mission Revival buildings copy features of the Spanish missions built in California in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Walls are smooth stucco, usually white or cream, imitating the missions' plastered adobe. Roofs are low-pitched and covered in red clay tile. The most recognizable feature is the curved parapet, a section of wall rising above the roofline at the gable end with a scalloped outline. Many buildings also have long arcades of round arches along the front and bell towers or wall openings for bells.

The Mission Inn in Riverside, California, built in stages from 1903 to 1931 for Frank Miller, is one of the largest Mission Revival buildings in the United States; Arthur Benton designed its first wing. The Southern Pacific depot in Santa Barbara (1902), designed by Francis W. Wilson, is one of many railroad stations in the style. Spanish Colonial Revival, which followed, uses more carved ornament, wrought iron and decorative tile, taken from buildings in Spain and Mexico rather than from the plainer California missions.

how to spot one

Curved parapet gable A gable end wall carried above the roofline as a parapet (a low wall) and cut into curves and scrolls. It is typical of Spanish mission churches and Mission Revival buildings. Stucco wall A wall coated with stucco, a plaster of cement or lime, sand and water, finished smooth or textured. It is common on Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival and Mediterranean Revival buildings. Red tile roof A roof covered in overlapping rows of half-round clay tiles, called barrel tiles, usually orange-red in color. It is used on Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and Mediterranean Revival buildings.

Also look for

ArcadeCourtyardRound arch

history

Mission Revival began in California in the late 1880s and 1890s, when many of the state's 21 Franciscan missions had fallen into ruin. Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona, set in Southern California, increased public interest in the mission era. At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, California's pavilion was built in the mission manner in white stucco, which brought the style national attention.

The style was most popular from 1890 to 1915. The Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads used it for stations and hotels, and it appeared in houses, schools and commercial buildings in California, New Mexico and Texas, and later in Australia as the Spanish Mission style. Stanford University's main quadrangle (1887-1891) combined Romanesque masonry with mission-style arcades and red tile roofs. After the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, where Bertram Goodhue was the lead architect, the more elaborate Spanish Colonial Revival largely took its place and was most popular from 1915 to 1931.

where to find it

Santa Barbara's old Southern Pacific depot, the Mission Inn in Riverside, and Mission-era campuses across California.

easy to confuse with

Mission San Xavier del Bac, an example of Spanish Colonial Spanish Colonial White stucco walls, red clay tile roofs, arcades, courtyards, and wrought iron grilles. New Mexico Museum of Art, an example of Pueblo Revival Pueblo Revival Rounded adobe-look stucco, projecting round roof beams, stepped upper stories, and flat roofs. Oia, an example of Mediterranean Vernacular Mediterranean Vernacular Whitewashed cube-shaped houses with thick walls, shuttered windows, flat or low tile roofs, and courtyards.