Chapel of San Pedro at Fort Lowell

When the soldiers left, Mexican farming families moved into the abandoned fort and made it a village they called El Fuerte. Fifteen immigrant families first gathered for Mass outside, under the mesquites, until they built this small chapel in 1915. A second church was flattened by a tornado in 1929; the men of El Fuerte simply built a third, dedicated in 1932. Carmelite priests served the congregation until 1948. The chapel is the quiet record of a community that turned an army's leavings into a home.

What the plaque says

A tiny chapel, built here in 1915, served the Barriada del Rillito, a community now called El Fuerte. The fifteen immigrant Mexican families of this village gathered outside under mesquite trees to hear Mass. In 1917, Señora Josefa de Mule donated land for a larger building. The second chapel, Santo Angel de la Guarda, was destroyed by a tornado in 1929. The present structure, also built by the men of El Fuerte, was dedicated in 1932. Carmelite fathers from Tucson's Holy Family Church served the congregation until 1948, when St. Cyril's replaced this chapel as the neighborhood parish church.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tucson — 6.1 mi
  The Old Pueblo — four thousand years of farming under the sky islands
• Mission San Xavier del Bac — 13 mi
  The White Dove of the Desert — the finest Spanish Baroque church in the country
• Saguaro National Park — 17 mi
  The giant cactus, and the O'odham who count it as kin

More markers nearby

• Cavalry Barracks and Band Barracks — 0.4 mi
• Fort Lowell — 0.4 mi
• Airmen Memorial Bridge — 2.7 mi
• El Conquistador Water Tower — 3.6 mi