Montezuma St west of Courthouse Plaza was once the infamous Whiskey Row , where 40 drinking establishments supplied suds to rough-hewn cowboys, miners and wastrels. A devastating 1900 fire destroyed 25 saloons, five hotels and the red-light district, but several early buildings remain. Many are still bars, mixed in with boutiques, galleries and restaurants.
Take a stroll through the infamous Palace Saloon, rebuilt in 1901. A museum's worth of photographs and artifacts (including the fire-surviving Brunswick Bar) are scattered throughout the bar and restaurant. A scene from the Steve McQueen movie Junior Bonner was filmed here, and a mural honoring the film covers an inside wall.
Whiskey Row has taken on a second identity as Gallery Row. Standouts include Arts Prescott Gallery , a collective of 24 local artists working in all media, and Van Gogh's Ear , where you can snap up metal art, fine woodwork and handmade leather shoes by nationally known artists, many making their home in the Prescott area. Sample Prescott's gallery scene during the monthly 4th Friday Art Walk .
The columned County Courthouse anchoring the elm-shaded plaza dates from 1916 and is particularly pretty when sporting its lavish Christmas decorations. Cortez St, which runs east of the plaza, is a hive of antique and collectible stores, as well as home to Ogg's Hogan , with its excellent selection of Native American crafts and jewelry, mostly from Arizona tribes.
Buildings east and south of the plaza escaped the 1900 fire. Some are Victorian houses built by East Coast settlers and are markedly different from adobe Southwestern buildings. Look for the fanciest digs on Union St; No 217 is the ancestral Goldwater family mansion (yes, of Barry Goldwater fame).
