Carrillo Intermediate School

The school here carries the name of Leopoldo Carrillo, one of the wealthiest men of Mexican Tucson, whose eight-acre pleasure gardens once filled this block with spring-fed lakes and shade. The gardens became the Elysian Grove amusement park; in 1912 the first airplane in Tucson landed on the grounds and Theodore Roosevelt spoke here. The Carrillo school opened in 1930 on the same soil, and since 1937 has staged Las Posadas each December, keeping a Mexican Catholic tradition alive in a public school named for a barrio patriarch.

What the plaque says

Carrillo School was named for the prominent Tucson businessman, Leopoldo Carrillo. During the 1880's, the site contained the Carrillo Gardens, the city's first park with eight acres of spring-fed artificial lakes, gardens and a recreational center. In 1910, Emmanuel Drachman converted the park to the Elysian Grove. In 1912 the first airplane in Tucson landed on the site and Theodore Roosevelt spoke on the site. Carrillo School was built in 1930. Its traditional Christmas presentation, Las Posadas, was started in 1937 by Marguerite Collier. Carrillo School continues to collect local history through its nationally known heritage center.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tucson — 0.5 mi
  The Old Pueblo — four thousand years of farming under the sky islands
• Mission San Xavier del Bac — 7.7 mi
  The White Dove of the Desert — the finest Spanish Baroque church in the country
• Saguaro National Park — 21 mi
  The giant cactus, and the O'odham who count it as kin

More markers nearby

• Carlos Ygnacio Velasco House — 0.3 mi
• El Paso & Southwestern Depot and Park — 0.4 mi
• August 20th Park — 0.4 mi
• Camp Lowell 1866-1873 — 0.4 mi