For about 80 years, the adobe walls of the Tucson Presidio protected the residents of the area from attacks by Apache groups, who opposed Spanish and Mexican peoples and their native allies beginning in the 1600s. The Spanish military designated the site in 1775 on the location of a prehistoric native village site. The fort housed 100 soldiers at its height, and 300 civilians lived in the area, with several hundred O'odham and Aravaipa Apache allies in the vicinity. The main gate for the fort was located south of here at Alameda Street. The interior walls were lined with residences, stables, a blacksmith shop, and warehouses. The walls of the fort dismantled after abandonment by Mexican forces in 1856 and were mostly gone by 1862. The last visible wall segment was photographed in 1915, and taken down soon after that. Remnants of the wall foundations are still preserved beneath the lawns, streets, and buildings of downtown Tucson. The reconstructed northeast corner of the Presidio in on the southwest corner of Washington Street and Church Avenue.
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