About one half the members made the 96 mile trip to Bisbee to take pictures of the 31st annual Historic Home Tour of Bisbee. The event is sponsored by the Bisbee Women’s Club as a fundraiser for local charities. It is regularly held on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving and coincides with the beginning of the Bisbee Festival of Lights that begins the Christmas season.
This year had ten homes on display, all located in the Warren District about two miles south of downtown and past the Lavender Pit. Having all the homes in walking distance to each other allowed the tour to be completed in half a day. That allowed time to take some shots of the historical downtown.
The starting point was the Boys and Girls Club. Bisbee is noted as the smallest town in America to have such a club. It is housed in what was originally the Warren Branch of the Phelps Dodge Mercantile Company and was built in 1947 when the Lavender Pit was fully operational. Nine of the other ten homes on the tour all date from 1907 to 1918 and are balanced between grand Victorian to Craftsman bungalow. The extent of remodeling ranged from cost efficient to grand and still evolving.
The most impressive home was the Dr. F. E. Shine House aka The Surgeon’s House, built in 1908. The house was actually owned by Phelps Dodge to house the chief surgeon of the Copper Queen Hospital. Most of the company’s mid to upper management lived in company housing. A series of doctors followed and the house was ultimately purchased from Phelps Dodge in 1967. The interior of the house still retains its original yellow pine flooring with six bedrooms and three baths. The house was built in the craftsman style inside with high pitched intersecting gables and exposed rafters with knee braces.
Some members stayed overnight on Friday to take in the beginning of the evening festivities in the Old Bisbee Historic District. Dinner was at Café Roka which equates to a four star venue at a respectable price. Saturday morning included a visit to the farmer’s market at the south end of Vista Park. By early afternoon lunch was on everyone’s mind so back to the historical district for lunch at Santiago’s next to the Copper Queen Hotel. No reservations are taken for lunch and the dining area is tight, but it is the town’s second best restaurant.