Shopping in Downtown Prescott: A Local’s Guide to the Shops Around the Plaza

✓ Fact-checked October 2026 · How we check

Downtown Prescott is one of the best small-town shopping districts in Arizona, and the reason is simple: almost all of it is local. Around the Courthouse Plaza and up the side streets you’ll find a bookstore with a cult following, Western shops selling Pendleton blankets and real felt hats, Native American jewelry dealers, antique malls, artist-run galleries, a toy store, a guitar shop, candy counters, and boutiques in buildings that went up right after the great fire of 1900. Nearly all of them are independent and owner-run, which means the person behind the counter usually knows the story of what you’re holding. This is our local’s guide to shopping downtown: the main shopping streets, the stores worth knowing, the events that bring everything to life, and the practical stuff like parking and hours.

Where	The blocks around the Courthouse Plaza: Gurley, Montezuma (Whiskey Row), Cortez, Granite, and Goodwin streets
Known for	Antiques, Western wear and hats, Native American jewelry, galleries, books, gifts, and sweets
Antique district	North Cortez Street (“Antique Row,” now also called the NoCo District)
Typical hours	Roughly 10 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m.; shorter on Sundays, and a few shops close one or two days a week
Parking	Free city garage at 135 S. Granite St., a block west of the plaza, plus free street parking
Best day	The 4th Friday Art Walk (5–8 p.m.), when galleries and many shops stay open late

How downtown shopping is laid out

The Courthouse Plaza sits in the middle of everything, a full city block of lawn and shade trees around the Yavapai County Courthouse. Shops line the streets on all four sides, and each side has its own personality. Montezuma Street, on the west side, is Whiskey Row, where galleries and Western shops sit between the historic saloons. Gurley Street, on the north side, is a run of boutiques, jewelry shops, sweets, and the Bashford Courts mini-mall. Cortez Street, on the east side, heads north into Prescott’s antique district. And the side streets, especially Granite and Goodwin, hide some of the best small shops in town. Everything is close enough to walk, so the best plan is to park once and wander.

North Cortez Street: Antique Row and the NoCo District

For decades, North Cortez Street has been Prescott’s “Antique Row,” and it’s still the first stop for collectors. These days the stretch north of the plaza is also branded the NoCo District, a mix of antiques, vintage, books, music, art, and places to eat and drink. There are fewer dedicated antique shops than in the street’s heyday, but what’s here is good, and the block is easy to browse end to end.

• Cortez Street Emporium (115 N. Cortez St.) is a multi-vendor antique mall, the kind of place where one booth is mid-century barware and the next is old mining tools. Next door, The Marketplace on Cortez (117 N. Cortez) mixes vintage finds with new home décor.
• Mid-Century Madness (140 N. Cortez St.) specializes in mid-century modern furniture and décor. It keeps limited days, so call ahead before you go.
• Lost in Sports (145 N. Cortez St.) is a sports-memorabilia shop full of cards, signed gear, and bobbleheads, open weekends.
• Ogg’s Hogan (212 N. Cortez St.) deals in Native American art, old pawn jewelry, and Western collectibles. The business started in Wickenburg in 1949 and has been in Prescott since 1998, and it’s one of the most respected names in town for authentic pieces.
• Toyful (205 N. Cortez St.) is a joyful independent toy store with magic tricks, imported wooden toys, and work from local artisans, in the building that once housed a longtime antique mall. It stays open late on Art Walk nights.
• Peregrine Book Company (219A N. Cortez St.) is Prescott’s largest independent bookstore, with new and used books, gifts, and a busy calendar of author events. It’s a destination in its own right and a perfect rainy-afternoon stop.
• Gray Dog Music (231 N. Cortez St.) sells new, used, and vintage guitars and offers repairs and lessons. It’s closed Sundays.

Insider Tip: Several Cortez Street shops keep short or unusual schedules (weekends only, or closed midweek). If one particular store is the reason for your trip, check its hours before you go, and plan your antiquing for a Friday or Saturday when nearly everything is open.

Gurley Street: boutiques, jewelry, and sweets

The north side of the plaza is the most concentrated shopping block downtown, and it’s where a lot of visitors spend the most time.

• Bashford Courts (130 W. Gurley St.) is a small mall of local boutiques set inside the historic Bashford-Burmister buildings from the early 1900s. It’s worth walking through just for the building, and it keeps later hours than most of downtown. Inside you’ll find Heirloom Market, where two Yavapai College-trained metalsmiths make jewelry at the bench right in the shop.
• Drawn West (134 W. Gurley St.) is a Western lifestyle boutique stocking Pendleton, Kimes Ranch, and Wrangler, plus Native-made jewelry, home goods, and Prescott souvenirs that don’t feel like souvenirs.
• Black Arrow Jewelry & Art (124 W. Gurley St.), in business since 1996, focuses on Native American and Southwest jewelry and art.
• Pralines of Prescott (112 W. Gurley St.) has been making chocolates, fudge, pralines, and toffee since 1991, with gelato too. Note that it’s closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
• French Hen Boutique (212 W. Gurley St.), a little farther west, carries Paris-inspired women’s clothing and home accessories.
• East of the plaza, The Spice & Tea Exchange (101 E. Gurley St.) blends dozens of seasonings in the store and has a loose-tea bar, and Modern Day Forager Mercantile (117 E. Gurley St., next to the Elks Theatre) is chef Traci Zitzer’s shop for gourmet provisions, baked goods, and local products.

Whiskey Row: galleries, hats, and Western gear

Whiskey Row is famous for its saloons, but between the bars you’ll find some of the best shopping downtown, especially for art. (For the history of the street itself, see our local’s guide to Whiskey Row.)

• Puttin’ On The Hats (106 S. Montezuma St., in the Hotel St. Michael) has been selling hats on Whiskey Row since 1990: Stetsons, Wallaroos, and leather goods. If you came to Prescott wanting a proper cowboy hat, start here and let them fit you.
• Clothes Hound Clothing Company (122 S. Montezuma St.) is a women’s boutique for clothing, shoes, and accessories.
• Ian Russell Gallery of Fine Art (130 S. Montezuma St.) shows the work of more than 40 artists and has an in-house jeweler.
• Arts Prescott Cooperative Gallery (134 S. Montezuma St.) is an artist-run co-op that has been on the Row since 1994, so the person who helps you may be the artist who made the piece.
• Van Gogh’s Ear (156 S. Montezuma St.) features contemporary art and fine craft from dozens of artists.
• Fite and Sons Mercantile & Ice Cream (208 S. Montezuma St.) is part toy store, part souvenir shop, part candy counter, with house-made fudge, roasted nuts, ice cream, and a year-round Christmas room. It’s a reliable hit with kids and stays open into the evening.

Granite Street, Montezuma North, and the side streets

A block off the plaza, the crowds thin out and the shops get quirkier. Fancy That! (124 S. Granite St.) has been selling women’s fashion, jewelry, and home décor since 1985, with a separate home store just down the street. On Montezuma north of Gurley, The Hike Shack (104 N. Montezuma St.) is the downtown outdoor shop for hiking gear, rentals, and boot fitting, handy if you’re heading to Thumb Butte or any of the easy hikes around town. For the full Western outfit, Cowboy Corner (320 E. Sheldon St.), a few blocks northeast, carries tack, spurs, buckles, and working Western gear; it’s closed Sundays.

Art galleries worth a stop

Prescott has a serious art scene for a town its size, and downtown is where you see it. Beyond the Whiskey Row galleries above, two nonprofit spaces are worth seeking out. ‘Tis Art Center & Gallery (105 S. Cortez St.), in the 1893 ‘Tis Building, shows affordable work by local artists. Mountain Artists Guild (228 N. Alarcon St.) runs rotating shows for emerging artists, open Wednesday through Saturday. If art is your main interest, our guide to arts and culture in Prescott covers the museums, theaters, and galleries in more depth.

Insider Tip: Buying Native American jewelry? Shop with established dealers who will tell you who made a piece, what tribe the artist belongs to, and what it’s made of. Prescott has several long-running shops with deep knowledge, and they’re happy to talk you through it.

The 4th Friday Art Walk

The best time to shop downtown is the evening of the fourth Friday of the month. The 4th Friday Art Walk, running since 2004, brings a dozen or so galleries and many shops together from about 5 to 8 p.m., with new shows, artists on hand, and a festive crowd strolling between Whiskey Row, Cortez, and Gurley. The remaining walks this year are October 23 and November 27; there’s no walk in December, when the holiday events take over. Grab dinner downtown afterward and you’ve got one of the best evenings in Prescott. Check our events calendar for what’s on.

Arts and crafts shows on the plaza

Several times a year the Courthouse Plaza fills with white tents for juried arts and crafts shows organized by the Prescott Chamber of Commerce, usually around Territorial Days in early June, Labor Day weekend, and an early-October fall show. Late May brings the Phippen Museum Western Art Show & Sale, held on the plaza since 1974 with dozens of Western artists. These weekends are packed, so arrive early for parking. Our guide to annual events in Prescott has the full year at a glance.

Holiday shopping downtown

Prescott calls itself Arizona’s Christmas City, and holiday shopping downtown is a tradition. Small Business Saturday (November 28 this year) is the unofficial start, and that evening the Prescott Downtown Partnership’s Holiday Lights Parade and Bonfire rolls through downtown at 6 p.m. On Saturday, December 5, the Christmas Parade steps off at 1 p.m., followed by the Courthouse Lighting that evening, when the plaza’s trees light up all at once. In between, shops stay busy with gift-hunters, and the year-round Christmas room at Fite and Sons finally makes perfect sense. See our guide to Christmas in Prescott for the whole season.

Insider Tip: Looking for a gift that keeps money local? The Prescott Chamber of Commerce sells gift certificates (at its office at 117 W. Goodwin St.) that are accepted at participating member businesses around town.

Parking and getting around

Parking downtown is free. The city’s five-story parking garage at 135 S. Granite St., a block west of the plaza, has about 500 spaces and is free on a first-come, first-served basis; during the very biggest events, temporary paid parking may apply. Street parking around the plaza is free too, with a mix of two-hour and all-day spots, but the closest blocks fill up fast on weekends, so the garage is usually the easier choice. Once you’re parked, everything in this guide is walkable, though Cowboy Corner and the Mountain Artists Guild are a few blocks out.

Hours and timing

Most downtown shops open around 10 a.m. and close between 5 and 6 p.m., with shorter hours on Sundays. A handful keep later hours (Bashford Courts and Fite and Sons among them), and Art Walk nights push many shops later. Several stores close one or two days a week: Pralines is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Gray Dog Music and Cowboy Corner close Sundays, and some of the antique and collectible shops are open only part of the week. Saturdays are the liveliest, while weekday mornings are calm if you want to browse without the crowds. Hours change with the seasons, so when one shop is the reason for your trip, check ahead.

Make a day of it

Shopping downtown pairs naturally with everything else the plaza does well. Start with coffee from one of the spots in our coffee shop guide, browse Cortez Street in the morning, break for lunch from our where to eat in Prescott guide, and spend the afternoon on Gurley and Whiskey Row. Sweet tooth? Pralines and Fite and Sons are right there. When your feet give out, grab a table outside from our list of the best patios in Prescott and watch the plaza go by.

Shopping beyond downtown

Downtown is where the character is, but you’ll find the big stores east of town. The former Prescott Gateway Mall reopened as Pine Ridge Marketplace in 2024 after a renovation, with Dillard’s and JCPenney among its anchors. Nearby, Frontier Village on Highway 69 is a large shopping center with Target, Home Depot, and an REI that opened in 2023, useful if you need outdoor gear on a weekend. Prescott Valley has more shopping along Highway 69 as well; see our Prescott Valley guide for that side of the Quad Cities.

Why shopping local matters here

The reason downtown Prescott feels the way it does is that these shops are owned by people who live here. The co-op galleries are run by the artists themselves, the hat shop and the bookstore have been anchors for decades, and new shops like Toyful and Heirloom Market keep the mix fresh. Every purchase at an independent shop on the plaza helps keep the historic buildings full and the downtown lively, which is exactly what makes it worth visiting in the first place. Browse them all in our local business directory, and if you own a local shop we missed, add your business for free.

Whether you’re hunting for an antique, a Stetson, a turquoise ring, a stack of used books, or a box of fudge for the drive home, downtown Prescott has a shop for it, and probably a story to go with it. Park once, walk the plaza, and take your time. For more ways to fill out your trip, see our guide to the best things to do in Prescott and our tips on visiting Prescott.