A black and white photo postcard showing the Cochise County Courthouse and St. Patrick Church, circa 1931. The front caption on the bottom left reads: "Catholic Church & Court House Bisbee, Arizona" The postcard is unused, and the publisher is unknown. Alice Metz Collection.  

The county seat of Cochise County was moved from Tombstone to Bisbee in 1929 necessitating the construction of a new courthouse on Quality Hill. The land was donated by the Phelps Dodge Corporation and Tucson architect Roy Place was hired. The construction was temporarily hindered by a strike of 30 workers on January 9, 1931. The design is an example of art deco architecture with white walls hinting at adobe buildings. Both the exterior and interior feature art deco art that was added as part of the WPA Federal Art Project. The interior was furnished by the Phelps Dodge Mercantile company. A small dedication ceremony was held on Friday, October 16, 1931 and was attended by a number of attorneys and judges. In 1935, the copper coated Iron Man statue sculpted by Raymond Phillips Sanderson was unveiled in front of the courthouse. - The Saint Patrick’s church was built in 1916 to serve the dominant religious sect in Bisbee – the Roman Catholics. The building is Gothic Revival in style and was designed by Albert. C. Martin from Los Angeles. The church was named for the patron saint of Ireland and for the many Irish miners in Bisbee. Saint Patrick’s was the fourth hall of worship built for Catholics in the Bisbee. The first meeting place was a cabin on Naco Road. The second was built on Quality Hill from adobe which served from 1884 until 1890 when the congregation outgrew the building. The third Catholic church was built on Clawson Avenue in 1891. In 1913, Father Constant Mandlin began fundraiser to build a grand church. By 1916 construction began at the cost of $45,000 ($1,119,000 in 2021). The church’s most stunning feature are windows with Munich Pictorial style-stained glass that depict Bible scenes which were installed by Emil Frei. The first pastor at Saint Patrick's was Father Gheldof who attended to Bisbee’s Catholics from 1895 to 1905. St Patrick's Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Since their installation 107 years prior, the windows never had any restoration or cleaning work done. In 2020, fundraising brought in $500,000 for the window’s much need restoration project. Support not only came from Arizona, but a few donations also came from as far Canada and the Philippines. Among the workers on the project was Emil Frei’s great-grandson, Stephen Frei. Other recent restoration work on the church included remortaring the bricks and repairing the roof. With all this love and labor, the Saint’s Patrick’s church will remain a beloved site in Bisbee for generations to come.

2001.17.3.14