List of historic properties in Bisbee, Arizona

Last updated

List of historic properties
in Bisbee, Arizona
Bisbee-Bisbee Main Street-2.JPG
View of Bisbee’s Main Street.
AZMap-doton-Bisbee.png
Location in Cochise County and the state of Arizona

This is a list of historic properties in Bisbee, Arizona, which includes a photographic gallery of some of the town's historic structures. The majority of these structures are located in the Bisbee Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 1980, reference #80004487. Others are located in the Bisbee Residential Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 2010, reference #10000233.

Contents

Also included are the photographs of individual properties identified as historic by the National Register of Historic Places. These include the Phelps Dodge Headquarters Building, the Muheim House, the Bisbee Women's Club House, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church and the Walter Douglas House.

Brief history

An Army Scout by the name of Jack Dunn was filling the canteens of his fellow soldiers’ on a summer day in 1877, on the twin limestone monoliths of Castle Rock, when he discovered copper ore and recorded the first mining claim in what in the near future was to be known as the town of Bisbee. Numerous prospectors and speculators headed to the mountains in Bisbee to stake claims. With the discovery of numerous ore bodies, Bisbee became known as the "Queen of the Copper Camps." Bisbee had become the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco by the 19th century. [1]

Dunn and his commanding officer Lt. John Rucker met a prospector by the name of George Warren. They asked Warren to file a claim for them. He agreed, but did not keep his word. Warren established what became known as the Warren Mining District. [2] He held a one-ninth interest in the new Copper Queen mine. [3]

The Phelps Dodge Company

Miner George Warren Miner George Warren.jpg
Miner George Warren

The Phelps Dodge Company of Pennsylvania sent James Douglas, the inventor of new methods of smelting copper, to examine potential copper mines. [4]

Phelps Dodge began their mining operations in Arizona in the 1880s. Arizona mining operations at the time stuck strictly to the "rule of the apex," according to which a claim owner could follow a vein of ore onto another claim, if the deposit had come closest to the surface on his land. This had occurred with Copper Queen, and Phelps Dodge, rather than risk losing this strike to the Copper Queen owners, purchased the Copper Queen mine, merging it with the Atlanta claim. [5]

In 1896, the company established its headquarters in what is known as the Phelps Dodge Headquarters Building located at 5 Copper Queen Plaza. [6] Under the guidance of Copper Queen President James Douglas, the parent corporation had initiated a number of programs for Bisbee miners. Among the historic structures which were built by the Phelps Dodge Mining Co. for its employees was the Copper Queen Hospital, the Copper Queen Library and Bisbee Post Office Building, the Phelps Dodge Clinic (now known as the Bisbee Review Building) and the Bisbee Gym Building.

The company also established the Copper Queen Hotel in 1902 and in that same year sold the deed to the land for 1 dollar where the Presbyterian Church was built. [7] Frederick C. Hurst, an architect for the Copper Queen Mining Co., designed many of the buildings in Bisbee. These included the Bisbee Opera House, Central School and the Old Bisbee Fire Hall/City Hall which is pictured. [8] [9]

One of the buildings (The Letson Loft Hotel) located in the Bisbee Historic District was where the Goldwater-Castaneda Mercantile Store was originally located. This is where a gunfight, known as the infamous "Bisbee Massacre, between a gang of thieves and the citizens of Bisbee occurred on December 8, 1883. [10]

Arizona Preservation Foundation

In 2012, the Arizona Preservation Foundation listed the Courthouse Plaza Miners’ Monument in Bisbee as endangered. The fact that a property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places does not guarantee that the owner of the same will not have the property demolished. Unfortunately many of the historic sites are in grave danger of collapsing or destruction. According to Jim McPherson, Arizona Preservation Foundation Board President: "It is crucial that residents, private interests, and government officials act now to save these elements of our cultural heritage before it is too late.” [11]

Historic Structures

Castle Rock Bisbee-Castle Rock.JPG
Castle Rock
Copper Queen Mine equipment Bisbee-Bisbee Mine Equipment.jpg
Copper Queen Mine equipment

The following is a brief description of some of the historic structures in Bisbee. [12] [13] [14]

Historic structures pictured

The following are the images of the historic structures in Bisbee and its surrounding areas.

Warren Ballpark

The historic Warren Ballpark was built by the mining companies and is still in use today. [16] The following is a brief description of the images posted.

Lavender Pit

The Lavender Pit is a former open pit copper, gold and silver mine which the Phelps Dodge Corporation opened in 1950. The Lavender Pit was named in honor of Harrison M. Lavender who was a vice president and General Manager of Phelps Dodge Corporation. [17]

Further reading

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisbee, Arizona</span> City in Cochise County, Arizona, US

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mule Mountains</span> Landform in Arizona

The Mule Mountains are a north/south running mountain range located in the south-central area of Cochise County, Arizona. The highest peak, Mount Ballard, rises to 7,500 ft (2,300 m). Prior to mining operations commencing there, the mountains were heavily forested with large Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir and other conifers, but these were all cut down for housing needs and to feed the ore smelting furnaces in Douglas, Arizona, approximately 20 miles due east. Now, the primary vegetation of the Mules consists of manzanita brush, juniper, lowland oaks and pines, and various grasses. To the east of the mountain range lies Sulphur Springs Valley, and the San Pedro River and Valley to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisbee Blue</span> Turquoise from copper mines near Bisbee, Arizona

Bisbee Blue or Bisbee turquoise refers to the turquoise that comes from copper mines located in the vicinity of Bisbee, Arizona. Bisbee turquoise can be found in many different shades of color and quality, from soft, low quality pale blue, to the quality hard brilliant blue turquoise and almost every shade of blue in between. The highest grade of Bisbee Blue turquoise is almost lapis lazuli blue and has a brownish-red spiderweb matrix. Green turquoise is also found in Bisbee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lavender Pit</span> Former copper mine in Cochise County, Arizona

The Lavender Pit is a former open pit copper mine near Bisbee in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. It is located near the famous Copper Queen Mine. The Lavender Pit was named in honor of Harrison M. Lavender (1890–1952), who as Vice-President and General Manager of Phelps Dodge Corporation, conceived and carried out this plan for making the previously unprofitable low-grade copper bearing rock of the area into commercial copper ore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phelps Dodge</span> Company

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Ballpark</span> Baseball stadium in Bisbee, Arizona, US

Warren Ballpark is a baseball stadium located in Bisbee, Arizona. The ballpark was recently home to the Tucson Saguaros of the Pecos League and the Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings of the independent Arizona–Mexico League The Stadium was built in 1909 by the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company as a recreation for the miners and their families, pre-dating the construction of Chicago's Wrigley Field by nearly five years. It is currently the home of Bisbee Killer Termites and Bisbee High School Pumas baseball and football teams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Douglas (businessman)</span> Mining engineer and businessman (1837–1918)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Willis James</span>

Daniel Willis James was the son of an American merchant who with his cousin, William Earl Dodge Jr., transformed Phelps, Dodge & Co. from a predominantly mercantile business into one of the largest copper producers in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper mining in Arizona</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phelps Dodge General Office Building</span> United States historic place

The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum is a local history museum at 5 Copper Queen Plaza in Bisbee, Arizona. It is located in the Phelps Dodge General Office Building, a National Historic Landmark for the importance of the Phelps Dodge Corporation's role in the growth and development of the American Southwest. The museum is dedicated primarily to local history, particularly the town's founding and growth as a mining center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper Queen Mine</span> Copper mine in Cochise County, Arizona, US

The Copper Queen Mine was a copper mine in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. Its development led to the growth of the surrounding town of Bisbee in the 1880s. Its orebody ran 23% copper, an extraordinarily high grade. It was acquired by Phelps Dodge in 1885.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper Queen Hotel</span> Historic hotel in Cochise County, Arizona

The Copper Queen Hotel is a historic hotel located in Bisbee, Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisbee Historic District</span> United States historic place

The Bisbee Historic District is a historic district located in Bisbee, Arizona, and has all the essential features of a prosperous, early twentieth century mining town. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The district has 80 contributing buildings, with various architectural styles including Colonial Revival, Mission Revival/Spanish Revival, and Italianate architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisbee Residential Historic District</span> United States historic place

The Bisbee Residential Historic District is distinct from the Bisbee Historic District, and is located north and west of that district. It developed in the late 1880s and early 1900s, to support the booming mining industry. While it has some multi-family dwellings, commercial buildings, and a school, it is primarily composed of single family houses. It also has an extensive system of pedestrian walkways and stairways. Bisbee does not follow a grid pattern, rather its streets wind following the contour of the canyon and gulches. Developed prior to automobiles, it has narrow roads which are steep, and still remains a pedestrian-oriented town. It consists of over 500 contributing buildings and structures.

The Calumet and Arizona Mining Company was a major mining company in Arizona during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In addition to mining, they developed the Warren townsite, based on the "City Beautiful" concept. The company existed until 1931, when it merged with the Phelps-Dodge Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muheim House</span> United States historic place

The Muheim House is a house located in Bisbee, Arizona, which is on the list of National Register of Historic Places. Built between 1898 and 1900, it had several additions up until 1905. It was named after Joseph Muheim, a local merchant, who helped develop the city of Bisbee.

References

  1. Bisbee History
  2. Cox, Annie M. (1938). History of Bisbee 1877 to 1837. University of Arizona.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. "Wager of A Lifetime". Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  4. Robert Paul Browder and Thomas G. Smith, Independent: A Biography of Lewis W. Douglas (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986), p. 7
  5. Phelps Dodge Corp
  6. Bisbee Museum
  7. Things to do in Bisbee: Architectural Treasures (Grand Old Buildings)
  8. Bisbee Opera House
  9. Central School
  10. 1 2 Legends of America Archived 2012-06-28 at the Wayback Machine
  11. "Arizona Preservation Foundation". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  12. Historic Sites
  13. Present
  14. Historic Buisbee
  15. Bisbee Historic District
  16. Back in Time
  17. The Lavender Pit