Josias T. Joesler papers

Josias Thomas Joesler was born in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1895. He was educated in Bern, Heidelburg, Germany, and at the Sorbonne in Paris. Josler worked as an architect and traveled throughout Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, North Africa, and Latin America. In 1926 he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he met developers, John and Helen Murphey. In 1927, Joesler came to Tucson, Arizona to work with the Murpheys, a partnership that lasted for thirty years until his death in 1956. The Murpheys sought to attract visitors and potential residents from the eastern U.S. by capitalizing on growing popular interest in Spanish Colonial, Mission and Pueblo Revival architecture popular in the American Southwest.

Joesler is described by architectural historians as having an eclectic approach, borrowing from historic and contemporary architectural sources and interpretating regional and local architectural forms endemic to the Sonoran Desert. Though he worked as a solo practitioner on occasion, it is estimated that Joesler designed over 400 projects with the Murpheys in Tucson, including commercial buildings, churches and residences. Today, Joesler is most well-known for his projects for affluent clients, including the design of St. Phillips in the Hills Episcopal Church and the Catalina Foothills Estates development on the north side of Tucson.