Site of Curtis Hall/
Curtis Duplex & Curtis Cottages
George W. Curtis came to Prescott from California in 1864, and in 1867 purchased an interest in a sawmill. He purchased a building on Granite Creek on South McCormick Street, and he and his brother John enlarged and modified the building in 1878. This building was known as Curtis Hall and was used as the meeting place for the Territorial Legislature from 1879 to early 1885 and as City Hall. Curtis Hall was described as a "mammoth frame house" which "overshadows every edifice in town". This building was apparently gone by the mid 1880's at which time the Curtis Duplex was built at the same location. The Curtis Duplex appears in an 1885 photograph of Prescott. It was a one-story wood frame building with a porch across the front, covered with shiplap siding. It was an unusual example of multi-family housing, circa 1880. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Around 1884, the Curtis brothers also built three "cottages" along South McCormick Street to the north and south of the Curtis Duplex. These early Territorial frame cottages were a good example of blue-collar housing in Prescott in the 1880s. Although greatly modified, one of these cottages still stands at 125 South McCormick Street and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Curtis Duplex and the other two cottages were demolished in 1988.
Marker is on South McCormick Street south of Beach Avenue, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
