Hello Friends and Family,

Link to this year's index by clicking here.


Jerome, Arizona - The Town

Sliding Jail As I mentioned last week, the mining town of Jerome is built on a hillside — a steep hillside. So steep, in fact, that the town's jail (and the complete block where the jail formerly sat) actually slid down the hillside following a 1930's blast. It has come to be known as the "Sliding Jail". It is amazing that the structure is relatively intact — although I think it would not have been pleasant to be in the jail at the time.

Central Hotel Many of the old structures have been put to new uses. Here the old Central Hotel provides a funky clothing shop downstairs. I'm not sure what is upstairs but my guess is apartments. If you look closely on the right end of the lower porch you'll see . . .

Peace Mannequin . . . a mannequin wearing clothing that is for sale. Peace! Of course how can you take her seriously with a beanie cap complete with propeller?

House of Joy This old building is "The House of Joy". Hmmm, I usually think of a place with such a name as a brothel. Well, perhaps it was at one time. And sitting on their lower porch, left-hand side . . .

Pig with Lipstick . . . was a glamorous pig complete with lipstick. This may be an old town far from the big city but they seem to be up to date with presidential politics.

Painter Jerome really is a town populated with artists. I ran into a painter as I explored the town. She was actually minding the gallery for the owner — but instead of sitting inside (it was a beautiful day) and reading or being bored, she was outside capturing the scene down the street. I chatted with her briefly and she mentioned a fabulous (as she described it) art show up in Sedona in October. Perhaps I will have to take a trip to Sedona then.

Switchback Street And do you remember me mentioning switchbacks? Take a look at this steep street and you'll understand why. Do you suppose they have to close this street when it snows in the winter? (Yes, it does snow in Jerome in the wintertime.)


Hotel Conner At the top of the street, the terrain levels off a bit and we find the Hotel Connor, built in 1898. It is still operated as a hotel with a dozen rooms which "have been renovated to the highest standards of comfort and convenience, while maintaining their authenticity with antique furnishings and decor. Each room features a private bathroom, coffee maker, microwave, mini-fridge, television and telephone. We now offer a wireless internet connection for our guests who travel with a laptop computer."

Their web site does warn you that rooms 1-4 are above the bar and can be noisy, especially on weekends.

For those who are interested you can see a photo of the hotel from 1899 plus read more about its history by clicking here.


Blue House There are residences in town as well. This one seemed particularly attractive to me.

Decrepit House Yet on the other hand, there were some that were a bit decrepit. It was hard to tell if anyone still lives here — although my guess is that someone does simply because the porch was not full of trash and dirt. Not my choice of residence.

Question House And this one was really questionable. It needs paint and the upstairs window was left open. Hard to tell.

Church But the Holy Family Catholic Church, built in 1894, is still in use — I had to wait on people entering and exiting until I could take my photo. This was "The Miners Church" and escaped the fires that destroyed much of the town over the years.

Ford Pickup In their parking lot sat this old Ford pickup with flat tire and camper shell.

Black Eyed Susan Well time to leave. But first a reminder of the rains that we have experienced this year all over Arizona. I believe these are Black Eyed Susans and there were profuse all along the roads I traveled to Jerome and back. I wish I could have found places to pull off the road and capture more of them — but I guess when they built these country back roads, they did not take photographers into account.

View Just for variety, I returned home via the road to Prescott and was richly rewarded with this incredible view (and a roadside pull-off area). It was a wonderful day full of photographic opportunities.

 Life is good.

 Aloha,
 B. David