A few short blocks from the plaza in downtown Prescott, the Sharlot Hall Museum’s assemblage of historic buildings, permanent collections, and changing exhibits--the largest museum complex in central Arizona--illustrates the early Wild West days of Prescott and the Arizona Territory. The museum staff, actors, and volunteers present a variety of live programs such as festivals, theatre performances, and living history reenactments that depict the area’s rich regional heritage.
The Governor’s “Mansion,” which housed the first territorial governor, is no more than a rustic cabin, but a mansion by mid-1860’s standards compared to the tents, wagons, and crude cabins in which the rest of Prescott’s citizens lived. It was built on this site in 1864 from Ponderosa pine logs cut in the surrounding forest. Sharlot Hall moved into the mansion at 415 West Gurley Street in 1927 and opened it as a museum a year later.
Additional museum buildings include the Fremont House built in 1875, home of John Charles Fremont while he served as Arizona’s fifth Territorial Governor; the Victorian Bashford House; and Fort Misery built in 1863-64--the oldest standing log building in the Arizona Territory.
Scattered around the museum grounds you will find replicas of a typical ranch house and schoolhouse of the period, an authentic 1885 iron turbine windmill relocated from a local ranch, a vehicle collection featuring Sharlot Hall’s 1927 Star, and a variety of gardens including the Rose Garden with over 260 rose bushes honoring Arizona’s pioneer women.
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