A black and white photo postcard showing a stairway leading up the hill across from the Bisbee High School, circa 1932. There is a car parked at the bottom. The postcard is unused, and the publisher is unknown. Alice Metz Collection.

Bisbee’s first residences were simple miners shacks assembled from the trees in the surrounding area. They sprang up around potential mining claims. As investment from the east poured in after viable ore bodies were found, the copper camp’s population rose dramatically leading to overcrowded wooden residences. These dwellings were vulnerable to flood and fire, especially those build lower in the canyon. The great October Fire of 1908 demolished most of these structures along Main Street in Bisbee. In the aftermath, many structures were rebuilt of brick and concrete. Many of Bisbee’s homes and boarding houses were built with porches that decades later were remodeled into sunrooms or mud rooms. After Phelps Dodge ended copper mining in Bisbee the population collapsed and houses went for cheap bringing in artists, hippies, and real estate speculators that permanently altered culture of the town. Today, many of the houses and other buildings in old Bisbee have been transformed into rentals, apartments, or otherwise including the former YMCA and more recently the Bisbee High School.

2001.17.3.24