Downtown Phoenix

The Rising Phoenix

This afternoon, I took a stroll through downtown Phoenix to photograph the architecture of the various buildings. It's a mix of old and new, classic and modern, beautiful and ugly.

I parked in front of the County Courthouse and took off on foot. It was a robust 108º and soon I was sweating like Moses Malone. By the end of my walk, I was drained like a Larry Bird 3-pointer. If Gage and DeSoto had come upon me, they would have ordered IVs of D5W and Ringers Lactate. STAT!

Anyways, enjoy the pics!


New School -

Ugly and hive-like

U.S. Airways Center - Home of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury

Bank of America - a good looking building

Chase Field - Home of the Arizona Diamondbacks

The Phoenix Convention Center

Futuristic

The Arizona Center

Fountain at City Hall

Old School -

The Art Deco Luhrs Tower

Brick and stone

Classic hotel

The Westward Ho

More Art Deco

The Arab flair of the Orpheum Theater

Maricopa County Courthouse

Very Spartan

Churches -

St. Mary's Basilica

Imaculado Corizón de Maria

First Presbyterian Church

Bonus Section - Gutted Gothic: I came upon this by accident. It's the historic First Baptist Church, which is now overseen by the National Park Service as an Historic Building.

The First Baptist Church lies in disrepair

Sky through the stained glass frame

The gutted interior complete with eroding balcony pillar

Offices are closed!

View from the rear

Beat up belfry and roofless

Tombstone, AZ

Classic Star Trek episode

Downtown Tombstone - Tombstone is the epitome of the Wild West in America. Mining, gunfights, cattle, prostitution, etc. It's located in the high desert of SE Arizona. Tourism is the only thing of note I could see taking place here.

Looking south on Allen St.

I do believe there's gonna be a showdown

Is this the 3:10 to Yuma?

Supposedly, the Bird Cage Theater is haunted

Looking north on Allen St.

Big Nose Kate was Doc Holliday's girlfriend

Boot Hill Cemetery - I have to admit, I was expecting dirt, dust and sagebrush. Instead it was rocks and cacti. The old woman taking donations - who was only SLIGHTLY younger than Wyatt Earp - asked me to sign the register. Mine is the last name in the picture below and is a shoutout to Dave and Kathryn in Plano.

Funny epitaph

He was the supposed leader of a gang of robbers

Blunt

Casualties of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Boot Hill

The Register

Random Pics -

Former county courthouse when Tombstone was county seat of Cochise County

Mine elevator cage

German music machine inside The Bird Cage

Entrance to the mines

City Hall on Fremont St.

Bisbee, AZ

Bisbee from Rt. 80

Old Bisbee - Bisbee is an old mining town in the hills of SE Arizona. It is now re-inventing itself as a retirement community, art community and tourist destination. Old Bisbee; with its narrow, winding streets and compact buildings had the feel of a quaint, European village. The town was full of galleries, shops and artisan studios. There were a lot of metal works, owing to its past as a copper, silver and gold town.

Old Bisbee

Old Bisbee

A good looking Post Office building

Bisbee Mining Museum

View of a brewery from an elevated sidewalk

The spire of the Pythian Castle building

Steeple of the Presbyterian Church

A couple hotels

Side streets and back alleys

The Inn at Castle Rock

Stairways - there were so many weird and different stairways in this town, I had to devote and entire section to them. For kids, these make great get-a-ways when being chased by the cops. No donut muncher is gonna hang with a spry kid on these steps.

Stairway to Somewhere

Gone to seed

Relatively lame stairway

Trippy copper work

Enlarge this pic. This stairway goes on and on and...

Locals are trying to save the town's stairways and each step had a donation plaque

Brick staircase

Random Pics -

Disrepair in Bisbee

More disrepair

Old school General Store

Look at all the retro

For TT in EGR