Aztec Ruins Administrative History

CHAPTER 10: THE MISSION OF MISSION 66 (continued)

FOR MANAGERS

Work Space and Utilities

A MISSION 66 project once again remodeled the old American Museum field station to provide more breathing space for the daily administrative business of the monument. [50] Doubtless, Morris would have been amused at the cyclic changes imposed on his structure, and doubtless, he would have been pleased to see a memorial plaque dedicated to him in July 1957 placed in a prominent place there. [51] Walls were rearranged to create a reception and information area with a sales counter in the two front rooms of the original house. Offices were made out of the rear rooms and the former museum. West windows and the south T-shaped doorway of the west room were reopened after having been sealed during the 1935-1958 museum interlude. The rear, or north, T-shaped doorway through which tours entered the museum gave access into a new work room added to the northwest corner. This room opened to a covered porch across the rear of the building. Two rest rooms and a plumbing alley were put on the southwest front corner, from where they were connected to Aztec city water and sewer lines (see Figures 10.1 and 10.3). [52]

Figure 10.3. Visitor Center, Aztec Ruins National Monument, 1959. Museum addition at right center;
rest rooms at left center. Original American Museum field station, or Morris house,
is at center rear left; lobby constructed in 1934 is at center rear right.

During the World War II years, adjudication proceedings were undertaken in order to ascertain rights held by stockholders in the Farmers Ditch Company. The nine original holders in 1892 had increased to 57 by 1944. Since the amount of his irrigated land transferred to the American Museum of Natural History totalled only 1.6 acres, Abrams sold the institution just one-sixteenth of his one-half share. In the 1950s, the water available was piped into 357 feet of 12-inch underground tile running across the Hubbard property from the Farmers Ditch to the northwest corner of the monument. [53] From there, it was diverted to irrigate new landscaping featuring native plants. [54]

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