The Palace Restaurant and Saloon
Prescott, Arizona · Civil War & Reconstruction · Est. 1877 · Open today
Since 1877
D.C. Thorne built the Palace Saloon in 1877 on a Whiskey Row lot he had purchased in 1867, where it stood among more than 40 bars in territorial-capital Prescott. Wyatt Earp, his brother Virgil, and Doc Holliday were among its Old West-era patrons. When the great Whiskey Row fire of July 14, 1900 destroyed the building, patrons famously carried the hand-carved Brunswick bar across the street to safety, and the Palace was rebuilt in 1901 as the Palace Hotel and Bar, complete with a Chinese restaurant and barber shop. A 1996 renovation restored the interior to its territorial-era look — swinging doors, hardwood floors, oak wainscoting, and leaded-glass windows — and the rescued Brunswick bar is still in use today. USA Today has named it one of America's 10 best historic saloons.
When the 1900 Whiskey Row fire swept through, loyal patrons hauled the massive Brunswick bar across the street to Courthouse Plaza — and reportedly kept drinking while the saloon burned.
What to order: The 24-foot, hand-carved solid-oak 1880s Brunswick back bar, shipped from New Jersey around Cape Horn to San Francisco and hauled to Prescott by pack mule.
How solid is the claim?
Arizona’s oldest bar — the evidence
The Palace Restaurant and Saloon in Prescott is our featured pick for the oldest bar in Arizona, with a claimed founding year of 1877. Widely cited by Wikipedia, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, state tourism sources, and press as Arizona's oldest bar and oldest continuously operating business. The main caveat is the 1900 Whiskey Row fire that destroyed the original building (rebuilt 1901), which the Crystal Palace in Tombstone uses to press its own 'oldest continuously operating saloon' claim.
Competing Claims
Other Arizona establishments with a stake in the title:
Sources
- 1. The Palace Restaurant and Saloon — Wikipedia
- 2. The Palace Restaurant and Saloon in Prescott, Arizona — National Trust for Historic Preservation
- 3. The Palace Restaurant and Saloon (official site)
- 4. Tombstone saloon, Arizona's oldest, getting a makeover — Arizona Daily Star (Crystal Palace rival claim)