More than a century before the invention of Yelp, Bisbee’s Copper Queen Hotel received its first glowing review on the front page of the Bisbee Daily Review.
On Feb. 9, 1902, the local newspaper declared the newly opened hotel a “magnificent hostelry unsurpassed in the territory.”
Now the oldest continuously operating hotel in Arizona is on the market for $12.5 million.
A crowd gathers in downtown Bisbee to celebrate the opening of the Warren-Bisbee Railway on March 12, 1908. The Copper Queen Hotel, then just 6 years old, is the white, multistory building at the center of the photo.
The Warren-Bisbee Railway opened on March 12, 1908. As you can tell, the opening attracted a huge crowd to the downtown area.
According to a 2015 story by Star reporter William Ascarza, Bisbee miners benefited from trolley rides as a more efficient way of commuting from home to work. The railway included six McGuire-Cummings "Interurban" cars. In 1916, 12 streetcars served a population of 25,000 at the height of copper production in the Warren Mining district. Credit: Courtesy of Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum
“We’re looking for the person to write the next chapter in this timeless tale of hospitality,” said Realtor Michelle Hagele, who is managing the listing for Long Realty.
The five-story, 28,715-square-foot hotel sits on less than half an acre across Howell Avenue from the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, about 95 miles southeast of Tucson.
It features 48 guest rooms with metal keys and period decor, as well as a restaurant and bar with outdoor patio seating adjacent to Bisbee’s popular Brewery Gulch.
The hotel went up for sale about a month ago.
Hagele said the current owner has been meticulously restoring the property since 2017, preserving its heritage while adding modern upgrades where necessary.
“It’s not one of those carbon-copy locations,” she said. “You’re not going to see stuff from the Holiday Inn. It’s actually historically correct.”
The Copper Queen remains the largest hotel in Bisbee and the only one with an elevator and swimming pool, Hagele added.
The historic Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee in 2017.
Originally commissioned by the Phelps Dodge Corporation to host visiting dignitaries and mine investors, the Copper Queen opened “after a year and a half of unremitting work and the expenditure of upwards of $75,000,” according to the Bisbee Daily Review.
“No city is complete without a first-class up-to-date hotel and certainly this may be said of the Copper Queen,” the newspaper gushed.
The article from 1902 goes on to describe the building’s Mission-style design — “entirely appropriate to the great southwest” — and amenities, including a barber shop, a billiard room, a “ladies parlor” and a large dining hall with private dining rooms in the back.
Over the past 122 years, the hotel has attracted such famous guests as Nancy Reagan, John Wayne, Julia Roberts and Sen. John McCain.
This white-border postcard shows Bisbee’s famous Copper Queen Hotel.
There is even an old photo of Teddy Roosevelt at the Copper Queen, standing next to a globe that opens into a bar. Hagele said that globe can still be found in the suite that bears his name.
According to legend, at least a few of the hotel’s guests never checked out.
Like many old hotels across the Southwest, the Copper Queen has at times cultivated a reputation for being haunted. Several paranormal investigations shows (and even the New York Times) have visited the property over the years to play up its spooky side.
But Hagele, ever the savvy real estate agent, was quick to point out that none of the ghosts reported at the Copper Queen are so menacing as to scare off potential guests or, say, an investor with $12.5 million to spare.
“They come with purchase,” she said of the spirits. “I don’t think they’re leaving.”
"The Copper Queen" takes place over a span of 100 years in Room 315 of Bisbee's famed The Copper Queen Hotel.
