The Douglas Mansion: Jerome State Historic Park
Near Jerome, Arizona
High on the slope above Jerome's main street, looking out over the Verde Valley and the red rock formations beyond, sits a large adobe house that was once the most comfortable address in town by a considerable margin. It is now the Jerome State Historic Park, and it tells the story of the family that ran the mine that ran Jerome.
The mansion was built in nineteen sixteen by James Stuart Douglas, known to friends and colleagues as Rawhide Jimmy. Douglas was the son of a prominent Arizona mining family, and he had sunk his own fortune into the United Verde Extension Mine, and the mansion sat on the hill above his Little Daisy Mine. The mansion was built to serve as a combination family home and hotel for visiting mining officials and investors.
The building was remarkable for its era. Douglas specified adobe bricks made on-site, giving the walls a massive, permanent quality unusual in a mining camp. Inside, he installed steam heat, a central vacuum system, a marble shower, a billiard room, and a wine cellar. In nineteen sixteen, in the middle of the Arizona mountains, these were extraordinary amenities.
The mine eventually ran out, and the Douglas family moved on. James's son Lewis Douglas later served as United States Ambassador to Great Britain under President Truman. In August of nineteen sixty-two, the family donated the mansion and its surrounding land to the State of Arizona. Jerome State Historic Park opened to the public in nineteen sixty-five. Today the mansion houses exhibits on Jerome's mining history, the Douglas family, and the geology of Cleopatra Hill.
