Prescott's Mt. Vernon Street

We are enjoying our first spring in Prescott. We've been exploring parts of town we haven't before. East of downtown is a tree lined historic district on Mt. Vernon St.



A first glance of its steep-roofed frame houses might make you think you were in a Midwestern town of the 1920's.


Or with the turreted Victorians, maybe New England.


There are homes with white picket fences



and ginger bread siding.


There are houses with wide front and side porches for engaging neighbors on Sunday afternoon.


Green lawns create an oasis in the desert for the eye and spirit.


Flags fly.


Flowers abound.










What is this neighborhood doing in Arizona? Where is the adobe? The cacti?

The Prescott area has always drawn people. Over 9,000 years ago, a up to 100,000 people inhabited the area. (Possibly ancestors of the Yavapai whose reservation now borders the city.)

The discovery of gold in 1838 brought national attention to Prescott. Further discoveries in 1861 drew the attention of Abraham Lincoln. The President, looking for sources of funding for the North during the Civil War, created the Arizona Territory in 1864. Prescott was established as the first territorial capital. (Not Tucson whose population was more supportive of the Confederacy.)

Prescott developed rapidly as northerners were encouraged to settle here. In 1865 it was described as being built exclusively of wood and inhabited almost entirely by Americans. Both made it unique among early communities in Arizona.

Prescott eventually lost its title as the Capital of Arizona to Tucson and finally Phoenix in 1889. In 1900, a devastating fire burned Prescott to the ground; but it was rebuilt, and many of the buildings today are reminders of its past. Prescott has many homes and businesses on the National Register of Historic Places and its white granite courthouse, set among green lawns and spreading trees, reflects the Midwestern and New England background of Prescott’s pioneers.



Prescott today (Thumb Butte in the background).