The Fire That Remade Whiskey Row

On a July day in nineteen hundred, a fire broke out near Montezuma Street and swept through the heart of downtown Prescott with a thoroughness that the town's wooden buildings could do nothing to resist. In a matter of hours, five city blocks burned to the ground, including most of the saloons that lined what everyone called Whiskey Row. By the time anything could be done, the outcome was not in doubt.

The damage was enormous for a frontier town. The story that lodged itself in Prescott's civic memory from that day is not the fire but the saloons. When the flames jumped to Whiskey Row, the bartenders and their customers are said to have grabbed as much liquor as they could carry and marched across Courthouse Plaza to safety, where they reportedly set up a makeshift bar on the steps of the plaza and continued drinking while the block behind them burned.

Whether the story is entirely true or partly embellished in the telling, it captures something real about the culture of the street. Prescott rebuilt quickly and with more durable materials. The Palace Saloon, the most famous establishment on Whiskey Row, was rebuilt in nineteen zero one as what its owners called the most beautiful saloon in Arizona.

The new Whiskey Row, built in brick instead of wood, still stands today. The fire that seemed like a disaster became the occasion for the streetscape that Prescott now preserves.