Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the 1917 Gothic Revival church is a copy of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in the Irish district of Whitehaven, England. St. Patrick’s 41 stained glass windows were designed and produced by Emil Frei, whose work is recognized as an unsurpassed example of Victorian-style stained glass. This large and beautiful church still serves Bisbee's Catholic residents.
Found all throughout Bisbee are a variety of concrete stairs connecting the city center with the residential homes and the businesses with each other and everything with the nearby mines that were crucial for Bisbee's existence and propensity. Originally wooden steps made throughout the late 1800s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) came to Bisbee in the 1930s and replaced the steps with concrete ones. There are around 1,000 staircases, with a total of about 30,000 steps.
A New Deal Depression-era sculpture by R. Phillips Sanderson, cast in concrete and covered with a thin layer of copper and completed in 1935. Bisbee native Lee Petrovitch posed for the sculpture, which commemorates the copper miners of Bisbee, and aims to portray ‘beauty, toil and simplicity’. Sanderson had moved to Bisbee during the Depression and worked as a commercial artist. He was paid $30.00 per month by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration during the six months it took to complete the statue.
When copper was discovered in Castle Rock in 1877 (so named by soldiers and campers in the area), which stands to Apache Springs, settlers and miners came to the area by droves. In just a few years, the town was Bisbee was established. In 1895, Bisbee's first mayor, John Joseph Muirhead, had this large structure made next to the copper mine. Originally called the Muirhead House, the purpose of the building was to serve as a boarding house for the miners. The building is one of Bisbee's largest structures. Over its 120+ plus years of existence, the building also became a hotel, then apartments, then back to a hotel. It still serves as a hotel today.
The Bisbee massacre, (the Bisbee murders or the Bisbee raid) took place on December 8, 1883 in Bisbee, Arizona when five outlaw Cowboys robbed a general store and killed four people. Five men were later convicted and executed on March 28, 1884 for the crime. They were the first criminals to be legally hanged in Tombstone, then the county seat. John Heath, who was accused of organizing the robbery, was tried separately and sentenced to life in prison. Unsatisfied with what they perceived as a lenient sentence, a Bisbee lynch mob forcibly removed him from jail and hanged him on February 22, 1884. Today, the grave of the five murderers is part of the popular Boothill Graveyard tourist attraction in Tombstone. The grocery store where these killings took place is now the Letson Loft Hotel.
The Letson Loft Hotel is located where the Goldwater-Castaneda Mercantile Store was itself once located. This address is most famous for the Bisbee Massacre that took place on December 8, 1883. This block of buildings was constructed between 1883-1888, only to be largely destroyed by a fire in 1888, following the block's construction. The block was completely rebuilt by 1890. The Mercantile Store relocated and Bisbee's Irish-immigrant, local businessman, Councilman and law man, James Letson, opened the Mansion House Hotel the same year. In 1902 and since then the hotel has become widely known as the Letson Loft Hotel. It is still in operation today.
Bisbee's second library to be constructed, this unique building with three-story arches, has served the town since 1907. The Friends of Copper Queen Library run and help preserve the library. The library also houses the Reverend Pritchard Collection, which showcases the life of Bisbee's first librarian, Presbyterian Reverend, J.G. Pritchard.
The Copper Queen Hotel holds the distinction of being Arizona's longest continuously operated hotel. The Copper Queen was constructed from 1898 to 1902 by the Phelps Dodge Corporation to serve as lodging for investors and dignitaries visiting its nearby copper mine. Two famous visitors of the hotel were American President, Teddy Roosevelt, and Hollywood legend, John Wayne. The Copper Queen is allegedly haunted and has been featured on at least two the paranormal investigation shows; the 3rd season of Ghost Hunters and the 6th season of Ghost Adventures
Phelps Dodge is a mining corporation that was established in 1834 in New York City, with trading largely occurring between the Deep South and England. As the nation expanded west, the corporation went from cotton trade to mineral trade. In the 1880s it moved to Phoenix Arizona where the headquarters still stand to this day. In 1882, Phelps purchased both mines operating in Bisbee, the Atlanta Copper Mine and the Queen Copper Mine. With these large mines under their care, Phelps opened this office building in 1896. The building and the Phelps corporation were active in Bisbee until 1961 when the supply of copper in the mines became dry. The building is now home to the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum. This museum was the first in the Southwest to join the Smithsonian's Affiliation Program, making it also the smallest museum in the program.
The Copper Queen mining company gave permission to the Presbyterian Church to construct a church building on company land in 1902. The first worship service was on April 5, 1903. In 1904, the property was deeded to the Church for $1. It has beautiful stained glass windows and a working pipe organ with pipes 16 feet tall, both still adorn the church today. The church's first minister, Reverend J. G. Pritchard, was also the city's first librarian. The church si still active today.
The name of this building is only a bit deceiving. When Swedish immigrant and architect Joseph Muheim constructed this building in 1905 it was originally called the Brewery Saloon. It was designed to be one of the biggest, and most fun, saloons, to serve Bisbee. However, that all changed in 1914 when Prohibition was enacted. From 1914 to 1982 this building became the Bisbee/Southwestern office for Manhattan's Stock Exchange. After 1982, the building returned to its Saloon roots, but kept the name the "Stock Exchange."
The green cupola of the Pythian Castle is a prominent feature of Bisbee's skyline. This structure labelled as a castle by the locals also includes a bell tower, whose clock still gives people in town time. Looking now as it did in 1904, the castle was built by Swedish immigrant, Joseph Muheim, to be a home for the fraternal society, the Knights of Pythias. a few decades ago the building became home to apartments and has recently undergone a restoration process to maintain its 1904 look.
Constructed in 1909 to serve as a branch to the County jail, the Old Jail of Bisbee would consistently overflow on the weekends with rowdy drunks that visited the saloons of the city. The peak of this overflowing jail was in and just after 1915. Not long after these days, a detention center was constructed nearby in the county, thus emptying the jail. It is rumored that legendary Hollywood star, John Wayne, was part owner of the building at one time. It now serves as an Inn.
Historic copper mine that provides public tours. The tour takes visitors deep into the old workings of the famous Queen Mine where great tonnages of extremely rich copper ore was mined. Phelps Dodge Corporation closed the Bisbee underground mines in the summer of 1975. One year later, the mine reopened as a tourist attraction.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
Get a QR Code for this tour
Ideal for catching a quick overview of the history and heritage of this copper-mining community, this walking tour includes a dozen stops along the town's main road. Be sure to check out some of the area museums and other historic sites in the area using Clio before you leave this historic town.
