A color photo postcard of Main Street with B Hill in the distance. The Mason’s building can be seen on the bottom left. The photo was taken by Bob Petley. The postcard is unused and was published by Bob Petley Studios and Plastichrome. Larry A. Qualls collection.

Once a small, winding pack mule road, Bisbee’s Main Street became the main artery of town. In the early years of the copper boom wood shacks, small businesses, and boarding houses sprang up alongside the dirt road. As miners, merchants and their families moved to Bisbee for the copper boom the area became crowded. It was battered by monsoon floods and scorched by fire; the great fire of October 14th, 1908 burned many of Main Street’s businesses to ash. As long as the mines were still productive, Bisbee residents had the will to rebuild they enforced fire codes and rebuilt in cement and brick, setting in the canyon a city that would survive generations. Among the many businesses that once operated on Main Street include the Fair Store, the Bisbee Daily Review, the Bank of Bisbee, JCPenney, DeSoto and Plymouth, Enna Jettick Shoes and F.W. Woolworths. Today along with its restaurants, hotels, and shops; galleries and antique stores have today become a staple of the businesses along Main Street.

2019.5.41