Learn About Prescott, AZ

Prescott has many Victorian style homes and, perhaps because of that, has been remarked to be the most Midwestern-appearing city in the Southwest. Prescott has 809 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

Prescott is home to the historical area known as "Whiskey Row", until 1956 a notorious red-light district. In 1900, a great fire destroyed most of the buildings on Whiskey Row. As legend has it, the patrons of the various bars simply took their drinks across the street to the Courthouse square and watched it burn. At the time of the fire, the entire bar and back-bar of the Palace Hotel was removed to the square by the patrons as the fire approached, re-installing it after the gutted brick structure was rebuilt. (The size of the back-bar is impressive, and appears not easily moved, even by many hands.) Whiskey Row runs north and south on S. Montezuma St. between Gurley and Goodwin St., directly west of the county courthouse. This single city block has been the home of the St. Michael's Hotel and the Palace Hotel since the late 1800s along with other colorful purveyors of night-life. Merchant Sam Hill's hardware store was located near Whiskey Row, famous for its extensive stock in its downtown location and out of town warehouse.

There are four golf courses within the city limits: Antelope Hills Golf Course, which consist of the City of Prescott South Course and the City of Prescott North Course, Hassayampa Golf Club, and Prescott Lakes Golf Club. More courses are located nearby in surrounding towns. Prescott is home to The Arizona Pioneers' Home, a continuing care retirement home, operated and funded by the State of Arizona, originally intended for impoverished Arizona founders from Territorial days. Initially the home was built to house 40 men, but in 1916 an addition of a women's wing was completed to provide for 20 women. Later, in 1929, the home again expanded to include Arizona's Hospital for Disabled Miners (current total capacity is 150 beds). Scenes from the 2008 movie Jolene were filmed in the Pioneer's Home in 2006. The Home has had many colorful residents, including a John Miller who had claimed to be Billy the Kid, and who was exhumed from the Pioneer's Home Cemetery in 2005, in an attempt to identify DNA evidence. Another resident was "Big Nose Kate" Elder, who would also be laid to rest in the Pioneer's Home Cemetery, though not without controversy.

Prescott hosts annual events such as Frontier Days, The World's Oldest Rodeo (1888), Easter Egg-Stravaganza, the Bluegrass Festival, Earth Day, 4th of July Celebration, Tsunami on the Square, art festivals, a Cinco de Mayo celebration, Shakespeare Festival, Navajo Rug Auction, Pumpkin Patch Carnival, World's Largest Gingerbread Village (actually on the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe reservation), Dickens of a Holiday, Prescott Film Festival, Folk Arts Fair, parades, the Acker Music Festival, The Cowboy Poets Gathering, the Prescott Highland Games, Courthouse Lighting, Whiskey Off Road and Ragnar Relay Del Sol. Also located in Prescott is the Heritage Park Zoo.