As many of you know, one of my favorite places to visit and relax is Bisbee, Arizona, an old mining community where my mother and her family lived back near the turn of the 20th Century. Particularly interesting to me is Bisbee's Main Street. All of the buildings you see in this picture were constructed by people born in the 19th Century, at the dawn of the 20th. Bisbee in those years was one of the hot spots of the West, a bustling, brawling mining town with amenities such as opera, schools, a well-stocked library, and stores that rivaled those in San Francisco. Alas, the mines eventually petered out, leaving the original buildings in place. These buildings have been occupied now by shops and restaurants, but the outward appearance of them is just as it was a century ago. Here are some photographs I took last summer.
The first is a shot looking West on Main Street taken from the middle of the street at twilight. You can imagine yourself in the Bisbee of 1906 - the view would have been much the same. The building to the left, with the tall pillars, is the city library, the first floor of which is the post office. It's been that way for over a hundred years. There is no door-to-door mail delivery in Bisbee because most houses are built on mountainsides, with columns of stairs winding up to the houses. Therefore, Bisbee residents have post office boxes, and collect their mail there at the post office daily. My grandfather's box (I remember the number) is still right there where it always was. The vertical sign to the left, "The Review" is the placard of the town newspaper, and that same sign was there over 100 years ago. It hasn't changed.
In this picture, night has fallen, and the streets are eerily quiet. This is a view of Main Street looking East from the other end. As I took the picture, a gentle breeze was blowing, and I swear I could hear the ghosts of Bisbee past whispering in my ears. The bay windows are situated in what was once known as the Letson Block, a structure built by a Mr. Letson, a merchant in town in 1905. Today, a small hotel is located on the second story, and those bay windows look out from the four hotel rooms. The original walls and flooring in the rooms are intact.
Bisbee is known for ghost sightings in the evening, by the way, and my wife and I have had an encounter while staying at the old Copper Queen Hotel about a quarter-mile from this location. One morning we woke up to find blood spatters on our hotel bathroom floor. Neither of us had cuts on our feet or anywhere else. It turns out that this is the same room where a locally famous lady of the evening killed herself after being jilted by her lover. It was also the room where police shot and killed an escaped criminal, as I recall, in the 1920s or thereabouts. Incidents such as these are not unusual, the locals can tell you of many more unexplained happenings.
Here's a picture of the Copper Queen Hotel, taken last year at Christmastime:
Hope you enjoy the photos!
John
The first is a shot looking West on Main Street taken from the middle of the street at twilight. You can imagine yourself in the Bisbee of 1906 - the view would have been much the same. The building to the left, with the tall pillars, is the city library, the first floor of which is the post office. It's been that way for over a hundred years. There is no door-to-door mail delivery in Bisbee because most houses are built on mountainsides, with columns of stairs winding up to the houses. Therefore, Bisbee residents have post office boxes, and collect their mail there at the post office daily. My grandfather's box (I remember the number) is still right there where it always was. The vertical sign to the left, "The Review" is the placard of the town newspaper, and that same sign was there over 100 years ago. It hasn't changed.
In this picture, night has fallen, and the streets are eerily quiet. This is a view of Main Street looking East from the other end. As I took the picture, a gentle breeze was blowing, and I swear I could hear the ghosts of Bisbee past whispering in my ears. The bay windows are situated in what was once known as the Letson Block, a structure built by a Mr. Letson, a merchant in town in 1905. Today, a small hotel is located on the second story, and those bay windows look out from the four hotel rooms. The original walls and flooring in the rooms are intact.
Bisbee is known for ghost sightings in the evening, by the way, and my wife and I have had an encounter while staying at the old Copper Queen Hotel about a quarter-mile from this location. One morning we woke up to find blood spatters on our hotel bathroom floor. Neither of us had cuts on our feet or anywhere else. It turns out that this is the same room where a locally famous lady of the evening killed herself after being jilted by her lover. It was also the room where police shot and killed an escaped criminal, as I recall, in the 1920s or thereabouts. Incidents such as these are not unusual, the locals can tell you of many more unexplained happenings.
Here's a picture of the Copper Queen Hotel, taken last year at Christmastime:
Hope you enjoy the photos!
John
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Thanks for posting those.
