Visiting the Lemon Hotel in 1884, Phoenix, Arizona


I enjoyed reading the book "Territory of Arizona", which was originally printed in 1884, and reprinted in 1964, which I found at the Glendale Main Library. Well, I can't say that I actually read it, more like skimmed over the text, mostly I just looked at the pictures. I saved them as high-resolution images, and with the help of my top history adventuring friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, I identified the exact locations. Today we're going to time-travel back to Washington and 3rd Street, and visit the Lemon Hotel.


Although the caption of this drawing says A.D. Lemon and Son, Proprietors, that's definitely not his son there. I'm assuming Eliza Lemon is his wife, but I haven't done the research yet, so I don't know. It could be his daughter? If you know, please tell me and I'll update this post. By the way, I apologize for the fact that the top of this photo curves, it's a big book and that's as flat as I could get it without risking any damage to it. I'm sure that these people were much more attractive than it shows here, although I'm thinking that A.D. could have smiled! Maybe he's just looking thoughtful.

This hotel was on the southeast corner, so I'll go take a look at Google Street View to see what's there nowadays.


There ya go. Looks like things have changed since 1884, but that's to be expected. Anyway, now that we know where we are, let's visit the hotel.


I checked with my history adventuring friend that there was no electricity there at the time, so at night it must have gotten dark. Real dark! The streets were unpaved of course, but Phoenix doesn't get much rain, so it probably wasn't much of a problem most of the time.

The population of Phoenix in 1884 was over two thousand people, which surprises me, as fourteen years earlier there was nothing in what is now downtown Phoenix except desert, and a tangle of mesquite trees. I guess I thought that back in 1884 Phoenix would be mostly adobe buildings with thatched roofs and tumbleweeds rolling around, but it was a happening place, with a fairly luxurious hotel, which is what we're visiting right now.

What's that? Air conditioning? Electric fans? Wifi? No, just some peace and quiet, and no traffic at night.



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