Whiskey Row: A Local’s Guide to Prescott’s Most Famous Street

✓ Fact-checked October 2026 · How we check

Every town in the West has a main street, but only one has Whiskey Row. The single block of brick saloons facing the Courthouse Plaza in downtown Prescott is the most famous stretch of road in this part of Arizona, and probably the most storied: frontier gamblers, a fire that took the whole block down in a night, Prohibition back rooms, a Steve McQueen movie, and more ghost stories per square foot than anywhere in the state. It’s also, still, a working row of bars where you can hear a country band on a Friday night or eat a steak in front of a carved back bar that dates to 1897. This is our local’s guide to Whiskey Row: where it is, the real history (and the legends that have grown up around it), the saloons worth walking into today, and how to make a night of it.

Where	The 100 block of S. Montezuma Street, between Gurley and Goodwin, facing the Courthouse Plaza
Famous for	Historic saloons, the Great Fire of 1900, live music, ghost stories
Best for	History buffs by day, live music and dancing by night
Kids?	Yes by day — the Palace dining room and the plaza are family-friendly; most music bars go 21+ at night
Parking	Free in the city garage on Granite Street, a block west, plus free street parking
Insider tip	You’re at 5,400 feet — drinks hit harder up here, so pace yourself and drink water

Where exactly is Whiskey Row?

Whiskey Row is the west side of Montezuma Street between Gurley Street and Goodwin Street — one compact block of two- and three-story brick buildings looking straight across the street at the Courthouse Plaza. The plaza is the heart of downtown Prescott: a full city block of lawn and enormous shade trees around the white granite Yavapai County Courthouse, with the bronze Rough Rider monument to Bucky O’Neill, sculpted by Solon Borglum and dedicated in 1907, standing guard out front. The Hotel St. Michael anchors the north end of the Row at the corner of Gurley, and the whole thing is small enough to walk end to end in a couple of minutes. That compactness is the magic of it: you can park once, wander the plaza, browse the shops, eat, drink, and catch a band without ever moving the car. In the frontier days the saloon district spilled onto nearby Granite and Cortez streets too, and the area “behind the Row,” along South Granite Street and Granite Creek, was the town’s red-light district, but today “Whiskey Row” means this one famous block.

A short, true history of Whiskey Row

Prescott was founded in 1864 as a mining camp and territorial capital, and the saloons came right along with it. The first popular one, the Quartz Rock, actually sat on Granite Street near the creek; by the late 1860s saloons were lining up along Montezuma Street facing the new plaza, where the miners, cowboys, soldiers, and gamblers of the young territory came to drink, play cards, and spend whatever they’d pulled out of the hills. The name “Whiskey Row” first shows up in print in 1883, and it wasn’t meant as a compliment — it was the town’s rowdiest block, and everyone knew it.

The Row also had a habit of burning down. Wooden frontier buildings packed shoulder to shoulder were a fire waiting to happen, and fires tore through the block in 1871, 1883, and 1884 — in 1883 one saloon was deliberately dynamited to stop the flames from spreading. But the big one came on the night of July 14, 1900. A fire that started at a lodging house near the corner of Montezuma and Goodwin — legend blames a miner’s candle left burning against a wall — swept up the Row and on through Gurley and Cortez streets in about four hours. When it was over, Whiskey Row and much of downtown were gone, with losses estimated at around $1.5 million and little of it insured. Remarkably, no one was killed.

What happened next is the most Prescott thing imaginable. The saloonkeepers dragged what stock they could save across the street onto the Courthouse Plaza and kept right on serving; by the next night, a dozen of them were reportedly back in business on the lawn, and at least three had saved their pianos. The town rebuilt almost immediately — this time in brick and stone, not wood — and most of the handsome buildings you see on the Row today date from the years right after the fire, including the Palace, finished in 1901.

Insider Tip: Want the real story behind the buildings? The Sharlot Hall Museum, a few blocks west of the plaza, is the keeper of Prescott’s history, and its historians have spent years separating the Row’s facts from its legends.

Legend vs. history: what’s really true?

A place this colorful collects tall tales, and Whiskey Row has some great ones. Here’s how the most famous stories hold up against the research of the Sharlot Hall Museum’s historians:

• “There were 40 saloons on the Row.” You’ll see this number everywhere, but it’s poorly sourced. Historians question it, and many think the real number on the block itself was much lower — still plenty for one block.
• “Patrons carried the Palace’s bar across the street during the 1900 fire.” It’s the Row’s most famous story, and saloons really did set up on the plaza after the fire. But no record from the time mentions the bar being carried out — only a piano (and, by some accounts, the pianist). The ornate back bar in the Palace today was installed in late 1897, so it does predate the fire; how it survived is, honestly, a mystery.
• “Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday drank here.” Half true. Virgil Earp really was a Prescott lawman in 1878–79, Doc Holliday really did winter in Prescott in 1879–80, and Wyatt passed through on his way to Tombstone. Whether they drank in any particular saloon still standing today is lore — the business that became the Palace was operating under another name back then.
• “The Palace was founded in 1877.” That’s the date on the sign, but the museum’s research traces the Palace’s actual lineage to a saloon opened on this spot in 1874 and the “Palace” name to 1883. Either way, it has a strong claim to being the oldest saloon in Arizona.

None of this makes Whiskey Row less fun — if anything, the real history is wilder than the legends. Our guide to the history of Prescott fills in the bigger story of the territorial town that grew up around the plaza.

Prohibition on the Row

Arizona went dry on January 1, 1915 — five years before the rest of the country — and you’d think that would have been the end of Whiskey Row. It wasn’t. Saloons turned into “soft drink” parlors and ice cream counters out front, while the real business moved into back rooms and basements, and the Palace is said to have run a speakeasy below street level. Enforcement in Prescott was famously lax; in 1924 a visiting judge sent to try 184 men on liquor charges moved the trials to Phoenix after being cursed and abused by drunken locals. When Prohibition finally ended in 1933, the Row came roaring back — the building that houses Matt’s Saloon, for one, was pouring legally again by 1934.

The Palace Restaurant and Saloon

If you visit only one place on Whiskey Row, make it the Palace. Rebuilt in granite, iron, and brick after the 1900 fire, it’s the Row’s centerpiece and its best time capsule, full of period details and anchored by that famous carved back bar running down one side of the room. Today it’s a full restaurant as well as a saloon, serving steaks, prime rib, burgers, and barbecue in an old-West setting, and it’s genuinely family-friendly at lunch and dinner. Movie fans will want to look for the mural honoring Junior Bonner, the 1972 Sam Peckinpah rodeo film starring Steve McQueen, which was shot around Prescott during Frontier Days and used the Palace bar as a location. The Palace is a popular stop for visitors, so on busy weekends it’s worth calling ahead for a table.

Whiskey Row bars and saloons today

Whiskey Row is still very much a working bar district, and each spot has its own personality. Hours and lineups change, so check before you go, but here’s the lay of the land:

• Matt’s Saloon — Prescott’s honky-tonk, with a big wooden dance floor and live country bands on weekend nights. It’s the place for two-stepping and line dancing.
• The Jersey Lilly Saloon — upstairs in the Palace building, with the Row’s only balcony overlooking the Courthouse Plaza. Grab a seat out front on a warm evening and you’ve got the best view downtown, plus frequent live music.
• The Bird Cage Saloon — a longtime rock-and-blues dive, famous for its mounted-bird décor. It lost its original home in a 2012 fire that burned part of the Row and reopened just down the block; bring some cash.
• Hotel St. Michael — the 1901 hotel on the north corner, with The Burke restaurant downstairs (brunch daily), an easy stop before you explore. It’s also one of the town’s classic historic places to stay — see our guide to where to stay in Prescott.

Just off the Row in every direction you’ll find more: cocktail bars, wine rooms, and some of the town’s best restaurants are within a block or two of the plaza. Our guides to where to eat and drink in Prescott and the best patios in Prescott will help you plan the before and after.

Whiskey Row by day vs. by night

Whiskey Row is really two places. By day it’s a history walk: families stroll the plaza, kids climb the courthouse steps, shoppers browse the galleries and shops, and the Palace fills up with lunch crowds. It’s an easy, welcoming stop for all ages, and the plaza itself often hosts art shows, markets, and summer concerts. After dark, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, the Row turns into Prescott’s nightlife center, with bands starting up around 8:30 and the music bars filling with locals and visitors. Arizona law keeps people under 21 out of bars unless they’re with a parent or eating in a dining area, and most of the music spots go adults-only in the evening, so if you’ve got kids along, plan your Row time for daylight and dinner.

Events on Whiskey Row

Some of Prescott’s biggest traditions happen right here. The Whiskey Row Marathon, held each October, starts and finishes on the Courthouse Plaza and climbs from the mile-high downtown to around 7,000 feet in the surrounding forest — it’s billed as one of the toughest marathons in the country, with shorter races for mere mortals. Over the Fourth of July, during Prescott Frontier Days and the World’s Oldest Rodeo, the Row is party central, with the rodeo parade rolling past and the Whiskey Row Boot Race, a 100-yard dash in cowboy boots for kids and adults. In late April the Whiskey Off-Road mountain-bike race and festival takes over downtown, and St. Patrick’s Day brings green beer and packed bars to the Row. The plaza hosts car shows too. When we were in town on October 17, 2026, classic cars lined Montezuma Street right in front of the saloons for the Route 66 Centennial Auto Show.

Then there’s the big one: on New Year’s Eve, a giant illuminated cowboy boot drops from the Palace building in the Whiskey Row Boot Drop, a tradition since 2011 that now draws crowds of more than 20,000, with an early drop at 10 p.m. for families and the main event at midnight. It caps off Prescott’s holiday season as Arizona’s Christmas City. For exact dates on all of these, check our Prescott area events calendar and our guide to annual events in Prescott.

Haunted Whiskey Row

With that much history, it’s no surprise the Row has a reputation for ghosts. The Palace is the most famous: staff and guests tell of footsteps, moving objects, and a basement that gave a TV ghost-hunting crew a scare when Ghost Adventures filmed there in 2016. Up the block, the Hotel St. Michael has its own lore, with sightings on the third floor and one room said to be especially active. Treat it all as legend — but it makes for a great evening, and guided ghost tours (on select evenings) and self-guided audio tours start from the Rough Rider statue on the plaza and work their way past the Row’s old buildings. Our guide to haunted Prescott has the full stories, and in the fall, our Halloween in Prescott guide covers the costume nights and spooky-season events downtown.

Tips for visiting Whiskey Row

Park free. The city’s parking garage on Granite Street, a block west of the plaza, is free, and there’s free street parking around downtown — just expect closures and tight parking during big events like rodeo week. Walk it. The Row, the plaza, and dozens of shops and restaurants are all within a few blocks, so leave the car and wander. Mind the altitude. At over 5,000 feet, alcohol hits faster than it does at sea level, so alternate with water. Check hours and lineups. Bars and restaurants on the Row change their schedules seasonally, and band nights fill up. Bring a little cash for the spots that prefer it. And if you’re coming for a major event — rodeo week, the Whiskey Off-Road, or New Year’s Eve — book your room early, because downtown fills up fast. Our guide to visiting Prescott covers getting here and planning the rest of your trip.

Insider Tip: For the best of both worlds, come in the late afternoon: walk the plaza and read the historic plaques while it’s light, have an early dinner at the Palace, then grab a balcony seat at the Jersey Lilly as the courthouse lights come on and the bands start up.

Whiskey Row has survived fires, Prohibition, and more than 150 years of rowdy Saturday nights, and it’s still the beating heart of downtown Prescott. Come for the history, stay for a band, and raise a glass to the saloonkeepers who set up shop on the courthouse lawn while their buildings were still smoking. It’s one of the great stretches of the Old West that’s still open for business — and there’s nothing else quite like it in Arizona. For more ways to fill out your visit, see our guide to the best things to do in Prescott.