Mission Revival

In California and elsewhere in the west, the Arts and Crafts perennial border prototype sometimes can be found in Mission Revival gardens designed to partner with the simple lines and rustic materials of Mission Revival architecture. Here, designers desired to evoke a romanticized vision of Southwestern Spanish-Mexican era mission and rancho courtyard and dooryard landscapes. However, nearly all historic planting design prototypes for actual Spanish mission gardens had been lost, altered, or in decay by 1900; some structural examples of Mission courtyards and Rancho dooryards remained, as did lists of historic Mission Era plants. Lacking adequate historic information, this rustic garden format lent itself well to decorative elements such as rough-hewn garden gates and ramadas, while off-white stucco walls substituted for adobe. On a larger property, one area might reflect the Mission Revival style and the remainder in the Spanish Colonial or other Mediterranean Beaux Arts (formal, eclectic) tradition.