Museum that displayed Tucson's lost barrio history closes

A little museum has been telling a big story about Tucsons roots, urban renewal and the oldest Mexican-American barrio in Arizona.

But no more. La Pilita Museum now is closed after 15 years.

Founders and directors Joan Daniels and Carol Cribbet-Bell are packing up the memories housed at the 1940s building at 420 S. Main Ave. in downtown Tucson.

Grants became more competitive in the economic downturn. Then grants started to dry up altogether and little cultural house museums such as ours began to suffer, Cribbet-Bell said.

Sometimes she and Daniels didnt take paychecks as they tried to raise money to keep the museum going.

About 6,000 tourists visited each year, and the museum had a membership of about 125. After a year of discussions with La Pilita Foundations Board of Directors, the museum officially closed Feb.1.

When Daniels and Cribbet-Bell took on the building as a community service project for Carrillo school children, it had been vacant for about a decade.

It had no roof, no plumbing, no heating or cooling, and there was food in the refrigerator from 10 years before, Cribbet-Bell said. It was pretty daunting.

Through a series of grants, the two former teachers renovated the property and started a museum and a free after-school program. It grew into a nonprofit association.

For several years, third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students learned about the neighborhoods place in Tucson history, collected oral histories, gave tours of the museum and operated the gift shop.

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Museum that displayed Tucson's lost barrio history closes