38 Faces

Thirty-eight Native American faces serve as keystones gracing the exterior of the Pioneers Museum (formerly the El Paso County Courthouse). While the overall appearance is of a series of identical faces, it becomes clear upon closer inspection that each face is in fact a one-of-a-kind sculpture.

The wedge-shaped keystones are carved from cotopaxi lava rock, and portray dozens of males, reflecting a variety of ages, facial expressions, and demeanors. Each is adorned with ornamentation ranging from maple leaves to rose buds to stylized fruit and leaves, and every head rests upon a serpentine scroll.

Greenlee and Sons was contracted by the building’s architect, A.J. Smith, to create the masonry work for the building between 1899 and 1903.