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| Diana Saloon on the left, Gurley St. on the right, (Thumb Butte in the Middle). |
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| 1870 Stereoscopic photo of the Yavapai County courthouse in the center of the Plaza. |
Another 1870 visitor to Prescott, known only as W. J. B., wrote the same paper, observing that, being only 6 years old, it was still “the oldest town in Central Arizona... There is no bushy undergrowth, but a luxuriant sward of grass is spread everywhere.”
“The population is about 600, besides a floating population of several hundred, comprising miners, prospectors, and travelers. The resident population are [sic] an active, energetic, go-ahead people, noted for their love of good order and their respect for the law. The town is beautifully laid out, and studded with fine shade trees.”
“Granite Creek, a beautiful mountain stream, runs along the base of the townsite. The coolest, purest, and best of water is found by sinking wells anywhere, at a reasonable depth,” he continued. “The climate is healthy, balmy, and invigorating in the highest degree. There are many neat private residences and many substantial business houses..."
A traveler's first stop in Prescott would likely be the stage office on Montezuma Street:
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| Montezuma Street with the Stage Office on the left. |
Montezuma Street (Whiskey Row) had much more variety than just saloons in those early years. Of course, the Diana Saloon was at the corner of Gurley and Montezuma, where the St. Michael's hotel stands today. But there was also an assay office, Kelly and Stevens' Men's Clothing store, the OK store, the Carpenter Bros. shop, a furniture store, and several others.
If one arrived on his own horse, or if he was looking for a ride, his first visit might be to one of the two Prescott's liveries--The Plaza Feed and Stable, or the Pioneer Stable.
In describing the stables, the Weekly Arizona Miner wrote: “It rejoices us to know that the proprietors of our two livery stables are, and have been for some time past, doing a fair business. Frank Ayres, of the Pioneer on Granite Street, appears as happy and content as a well-fed, easy-worked Federal official.” Brooke & Linn of the Plaza Stables were equally busy. “Never before have our two livery stables been conducted so well as at present, and travelers should know it.”
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| Plaza Stable, 1870 |
Prescott offered two hotels at the beginning of the year, but one started going through some changes in March. “We hear that the old Prescott Hotel on Granite Street is being fitted up for a dance-house,” the Miner reported. “It will soon be stocked with frail, dark-eyed senoritas…” The paper believed there were enough such places in town already.
Traveling west on Gurley Street, across from the Plaza, one would come across CT Rodgers' Prescott Market, followed by the Arizona Brewery. Next was the first brick building in all the Territory, the Arizona Miner newspaper building.
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| Gurley Street, 1870. |
Next was the first hotel in Prescott with finished rooms, the Dudley House. After June of the year, the last business on Gurley that faced the Plaza was the brand-new brick building housing D Henderson & Bro. mercantile. It moved from the corner of Gurley and Granite Street. It was nearly completed in March, but it collapsed and needed to be rebuilt. The cost of the new structure was $10,000 (about $245,000 today).
In the Fall, one would notice the Campbell & Buffum mercantile on Montezuma Street expanded its business with “a fine one-story brick and stone” building. It was 25x74 feet, and the ceiling was 11 feet high. “The iron doors and shutters were brought from San Francisco,” the paper noted. “In less than five years, they have expressed, in building and improving, in this town, about $30,000” (more than $736,000 in today’s money).
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| Montezuma Street 1870 |
“There is not a vacant house in the place," the writer observed, "and at least a score of buildings have been erected” in the first half of the year, although Prescott was still without a church building. “The Masons have a fine hall,” which was shared with the Odd Fellows.
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| Another 1870 view of Gurley Street |
WJB catalogued the businesses in 1870. There were ten stores, including:
He also found eight saloons (he might not have made it to all parts of town)! Not many advertised, (or needed to):
Additionally, WJB noted: two breweries, one drug store, two bakeries, one butcher shop, two blacksmith shops, two tailor shops, two barbershops, one jewelry and watchmaker’s shop, five carpenter’s shops, two saddler’s shops, one tinsmith shop, one photography gallery, two wagon-baker’s shops, a US Internal Revenue office, a US land office, five lawyers, two doctors... and one printing office, publishing one weekly newspaper, with a large circulation.
The first bank would not appear for seven more years, and the railroad was 16 years in the future.
Prescott also had a premier gunsmith shop that the newspaper considered to be “the only shop of [its] kind in the Territory at which good work is done.”
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| North Cortez Street from the roof of the Old Courthouse. |
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| South Cortez Street from the roof of the Old Courthouse. |
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| The Lawler Block and Office Row on Cortez St. |
“Prescott is a distributing point for a large extent of the county, being in the center of a great agricultural and grazing country,” WJB concluded, “and at the same time surrounded by a region rich with the precious metals in greater extent and profusion than any yet discovered in the world.”
At just 6 years old, Prescott’s future was bright, and it would only continue to grow.
Description of the Indian Wars in Yavapai County, AZ in the Spring of 1870.
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SOURCES:
Weekly Arizona Miner, 10/8/1870, Pg. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 6/4/1870, Pg. 3, Col. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 1/1/1870, Pg. 4.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 11/26/1870, Pg. 3, Col. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 7/30/1870, Pg. 3, Col. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 3/26/1870, Pg. 3, Col. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 7/30/1870, Pg. 3, Col. 1.
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