Jerome Grand Hotel | |
 | |
   | |
| Location | Jerome, Jerome, Arizona |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 34°45′13″N112°6′41″W / 34.75361°N 112.11139°W |
| Part of | Jerome Historic District (ID66000196 [1] ) |
| Added to NRHP | November 13, 1966 |
The Jerome Grand Hotel is a historic hotel that is in use in Jerome, Arizona. The hotel's motto is "Arizona's mile high historic landmark"
The Jerome Grand Hotel was originally constructed in 1926 under the name United Verde Hospital, owned by the United Verde Copper Company (UVCC), later to become Phelps Dodge Mining Corporation. Some knew it as the Phelps Dodge Hospital and United Verde Copper Hospital. It was the 4th and final hospital in Jerome. Opened in January 1927, the United Verde Hospital was a state-of-the-art medical facility; in 1930, listed as the most modern and well equipped hospital in Arizona and possibly in all of the western states. The hospital, however was closed in 1950, as the mining operations began shutting down and medical services were available in the neighboring community of Cottonwood, where many of the staff transferred to. The building stood unused for the next 44 years.
The former hospital was purchased by Larry Altherr from Phelps Dodge Mining Corporation in 1994, and was renamed the Jerome Grand Hotel, opening for business in 1996. Larry Altherr remains the owner.
The Jerome Grand Hotel is well noted to be the highest commercial building in the Verde Valley, being at a height of 5240 feet above sea level. The hotel was built as a Mission Revival Style of architecture and was the last major building to be constructed in Jerome. The building was considered by many a masterpiece of architecture because, not only was it constructed of poured-in-place concrete, but also at a 50 degree slope on solid bedrock, up against the slopes of Mingus Mountain. The 30,000 square foot building was designed to be fireproof-not one piece of wood is in the framework-and also earthquake proof, as it needed to withstand not only the rumblings of Mother Nature but also the blasts of 260,000 pounds of dynamite.
The Otis Elevator, which was Arizona's first self-service elevator, was installed in the United Verde Hospital in 1926 and serves all five levels of the building. The elevator is regularly maintained and inspected, insuring safety for public use. This Otis elevator is different from modern elevators because, designed for hospital use, it travels much more slowly, at a distance of only 50 feet per minute, rather than the normal 800 feet per minute found on high rise buildings. The Otis elevator is narrow and deep, designed for hospital equipment, such as gurneys and wheelchairs.
The cast iron Kewanee Boiler, which was also installed in 1926, provides low pressure steam throughout the building. The Kewanee boiler, designed to not only be portable but also convertible, could operate on wood, coal or oil. When in use during the hospital days, the source was oil and has since been converted to operate using natural gas, producing between 800,000 and 2,500,000 BTUs. The Kewanee Boiler also utilizes a dual pump feature, so it need not be shut off for maintenance nor repair, insuring consistent pressure and warmth throughout the building.
While it operated as the United Verde Hospital and later became the Jerome Grand Hotel, many alleged hauntings have occurred. According to ghostlyfavorites.com., "Due to the high level of activity in the hotel, it is a quite popular destination for amateur ghost hunters". Guests that have stayed at the hotel reported to hear coughing, labored breathing, and even voices coming from empty rooms. Guests also reported smells coming from rooms, such as flowers, dust, cigar smoke, and whiskey. Others report light anomalies and the television sets turning themselves on with no explanation.
Many guests and hotel staff have heard and seen what appears to be a 4 or 5 year old child running down the hallway on the 3rd floor, sometimes crying or laughing. This child also likes to appear at the foot of the bed in various rooms, just staring at the bed's occupant. Frequently, the sounds of giggling and running occur on the top floor, as though children are at play. The sounds of a newborn baby's cry is common on the 3rd and 4th floors, as well as the faint smell of baby powder and zinc oxide. The baby's crying has alerted enough guests that they've phoned the front desk out of concern; the location being a vacant room.
Staff as well as guests frequently report bedside table lamps and televisions being unplugged, shampoo bottles rolling across the floor or flying across the room. The sound of doors opening/closing while the room is otherwise vacant are common. Guests have found electronics such as cell phones and camcorders dead center beneath the bed. Front Desk staff, particularly the graveyard shift, have reported hearing coughing and sneezing from the hotel's laundry room, seeing shadows in the same area of whom they believe to be Claude Harvey, the hospital's maintenance man who was found dead on April 3, 1935, pinned beneath the Otis elevator, presumably murdered. They see and hear Claude roaming the stairwells and the boiler room as though still at work. Many guests have reported seeing the apparitions of two ladies, one in a white gown, and another one in a nurse's outfit, as well as someone who appears to be a doctor or nurse in a long lab coat carrying a clipboard, roaming the halls. A Spirit Cat is a frequent visitor to the hotel. Its origin unknown, the cat has been heard meowing, hissing and scratching at doors and walls. Both staff and guests have heard and felt the cat brushing against their legs and snuggling against them while on the bed. Most notable and commonplace is the imprint on the bedding of what is believed to be the cat curled up, that bedding moments earlier, smooth and straight. A photo, provided by a guest staying in Rm 20 in 2008, shows the cat very clearly sitting on a table, looking toward the photographer. Photos provided by staff and guests, as well as personal accounts are available for viewing on www.hauntedmania.com.
During its hospital days, many deaths occurred from illness or injury, but also some rather suspicious in origin, like that of maintenance man Claude Harvey. Claude was found pinned by the back of the neck by the elevator, quite dead. A thorough inspection of the elevator was done, as well as a coroner's inquest that determined the elevator could not have caused Claude's death. No autopsy was allowed to be performed, nor x-ray taken, as the United Verde Copper Company, who owned the building, did not want suspicion pointing in their direction as accident nor intent. Claude's is the only death in the hospital whose cause has yet to be determined. Speculation is, Mr. Harvey was murdered and his body placed in the elevator room, with his head hanging over the elevator shaft, to look like an accident.
Only one other known death since the hospital closed down in 1950, that of Manoah Hoffpauir, a local man hired by Phelps Dodge Mining Company to be a presence in the vacant building, hoping to offset the years of vandalism. Manoah was found hanging from a steam pipe in the Engineer's Office, where he resided while serving as the caretaker. His death in 1982 was ruled a suicide. During its days as the United Verde Hospital, an estimated 9000 deaths occurred, however no known records are present, so that number has yet to be validated. When purchased in 1994 by Larry Altherr, the hospital records were gone, so any information regarding staff and patients is via word-of-mouth, with little or no verification. The hospital was a general surgical hospital, meeting the needs of all who entered; unlike the name of the resident restaurant, a separate business from the hotel named Asylum, the building was never a mental health facility nor exclusive for tuberculosis patients.
Due to the extreme privacy the hotel wishes to provide its guests, private tours have been discontinued and no one other than registered guests and staff are permitted on the guest floors. The lobby (former emergency room) is open to the public 24/7 and the Asylum Restaurant (admitting and dispensary) is open to the public 11am-9pm Wednesday-Monday, currently closed Tuesdays. A complete history, photos and online booking is available via the hotel's website: www.jeromegrandhotel.net. The hotel is open 365 days a year.
Bisbee is a city in and the county seat of Cochise County in southeastern Arizona, United States. It is 92 miles (148 km) southeast of Tucson and 11 miles (18 km) north of the Mexican border. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town was 4,923, down from 5,575 in the 2010 census.
Jerome is a town in the Black Hills of Yavapai County in the U.S. state of Arizona. Founded in the late 19th century on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley, Jerome is more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above sea level. It is about 100 miles (160 km) north of Phoenix along State Route 89A between Sedona and Prescott. Supported in its heyday by rich copper mines, it was home to more than 10,000 people in the 1920s. As of the 2020 census, its population was 464.
Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the organization based in Liverpool, England. The import-export firm at first exported United States cotton from the Deep South to England and imported various metals to the US needed for industrialization. With the expansion of the Western frontier in North America, the corporation acquired mines and mining companies, including the Copper Queen Mine in Cochise County, Arizona and the Dawson, New Mexico coal mines. It operated its own mines and acquired railroads to carry its products. By the late 19th century, it was known as a mining company.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, or simply Tower of Terror, is a series of similar accelerated drop tower dark rides located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Tokyo DisneySea, Walt Disney Studios Park, and formerly located at Disney California Adventure. The attraction is inspired by Rod Serling's anthology television series, The Twilight Zone, and takes place in the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel in Hollywood, California. The Tokyo version features an original storyline not related to The Twilight Zone and takes place in the fictional Hotel Hightower. All versions of the attraction place riders in a seemingly ordinary hotel elevator, and present a fictional backstory in which people have mysteriously disappeared from the elevator under the influence of a supernatural element many years previously.
Disney's Coronado Springs Resort is a resort hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort that opened on August 1, 1997. The resort is located in the Animal Kingdom Resort Area. Its theme is American colonial Spanish and southwestern American. This hotel is categorized as a 'moderate' resort. This was Walt Disney World's first attempt at a 'moderate' resort with a convention center. It is the only moderate level Disney resort with suites, a cafeteria-style restaurant, a formal dinner restaurant, a gift shop, an arcade, one large pool, three quiet pools, a salon, fitness center, and a dance club. The resort is owned and operated by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
James Walter Douglas was a British North America born mining engineer and businessman who introduced a number of metallurgical innovations in copper mining and amassed a fortune through the copper mining industry of Bisbee, Arizona Territory and Sonora before and after the turn of the 20th century.
James Stuart Douglas, popularly known as Rawhide Jimmy, was a Canadian born, American businessman and mining executive.
Jerome State Historic Park is a state park of Arizona, US, featuring the Douglas Mansion, built in 1916 by a family of influential mining entrepreneurs in Jerome, Arizona, a mining region in the northeast of the Black Hills, east Yavapai County. A museum is located in the old Douglas Mansion.
The Bisbee Deportation was the illegal kidnapping and deportation of about 1,300 striking mine workers, their supporters, and citizen bystanders by 2,000 members of a deputized posse, who arrested them beginning on July 12, 1917, in Bisbee, Arizona. The action was orchestrated by Phelps Dodge, the major mining company in the area, which provided lists of workers and others who were to be arrested to the Cochise County sheriff, Harry C. Wheeler. Those arrested were taken to a local baseball park before being loaded onto cattle cars and deported 200 miles (320 km) to Tres Hermanas in New Mexico. The 16-hour journey was through desert without food and with little water. Once unloaded, the deportees, most without money or transportation, were warned against returning to Bisbee. The US government soon brought in members of the US Army to assist with relocating the deportees to Columbus, New Mexico.
Louis S. Cates was an American mining engineer and businessman. He was president of Phelps Dodge from 1930 to 1947.
Louis Davidson Ricketts was an American economic geologist, metallurgist, mining engineer and banker who pioneered development of copper mines in the U.S. state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora.
In Arizona, copper mining has been a major industry since the 19th century. In 2007, Arizona was the leading copper-producing state in the country, producing 750 thousand metric tons of copper, valued at $5.54 billion. Arizona's copper production was 60% of the total for the United States. Copper mining also produces gold and silver as byproducts. Byproduct molybdenum from copper mining makes Arizona the nation's second-largest producer of that metal. Although copper mineralization was found by the earliest Spanish explorers of Arizona, the territory was remote, and copper could seldom be profitably mined and shipped. Early Spanish, Mexican, and American prospectors searched for gold and silver, and ignored copper. It was not until the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876 that copper became broadly economic to mine and ship to market.
The Jerome Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District encompassing the former mining community of Jerome, Arizona. The town was founded as a mining camp associated with copper deposits that were mined from the late 19th century until 1953. The district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966 and was included into the then-new National Register of Historic Places.
Freeport-McMoRan Center is a highrise located in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona. It is located adjacent to Arizona State University's Downtown campus. Upon completion in 2009, the building was the first high-rise office tower to open in Downtown Phoenix in nearly eight years. It is named for mining company Freeport-McMoRan whose headquarters are located in the building.
The El Paso and Southwestern Railroad began in 1888 as the Arizona and South Eastern Railroad, a short line serving copper mines in southern Arizona. Over the next few decades, it grew into a 1200-mile system that stretched from Tucumcari, New Mexico, southward to El Paso, Texas, and westward to Tucson, Arizona, with several branch lines, including one to Nacozari, Mexico. The railroad was bought by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1924 and fully merged into its parent company in 1955. The EP&SW was a major link in the transcontinental route of the Golden State Limited.
The Copper Queen Hotel is a historic hotel located in Bisbee, Arizona.
One North Central, formerly the Phelps Dodge Tower, is a high-rise office building located along Central Avenue in the Downtown area of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. Its name is a reference to its street address at 1 N. Central Avenue. The tower rises 20 floors and 290 feet (88 m) in height. Owned by Parallel Capital Partners, One North Central was built in 2001 and initially served as the headquarters for the Phelps Dodge mining company. The tower was designed by SmithGroup, and Ryan Companies was the developer. Today it stands as the 25th-tallest building in Phoenix. Phelps Dodge was subsequently acquired by Freeport McMoRan Inc., who moved the corporate offices two blocks north into the newly constructed Freeport-McMoRan Center.
| Topics | |
|---|---|
| Lists by state |
|
| Lists by insular areas | |
| Lists by associated state | |
| Other areas | |
| Related | |
