We begin our walk to see a select few properties in Old Bisbee with a look back up at 226 Opera Drive from a few hundred feet below it, still on Opera. This was the property we eventually decided to buy.
The next three frames are of the lot on Lower Opera just above City Park. The view immediately below is from the balcony of 226 Opera. The lot is just above the top of the bandshell in City Park. Below that is a frame taken at the level of the lot looking in the same direction from just behind the bandshell.
The frame below is a glimpse of a portion of the same lot which is in the lower part of the photo. Down below it, the old graffiti enhanced structure in the center is a ‘home’ to some who are believed homeless, although it may just be a hangout on Brewery Gulch! Near the top to the right of center is the patio of the Silver King Hotel, one of the many music venues in Bisbee.
The next five frames feature a vacant lot at 103B Brewery Avenue, directly above 103. (Confused yet? You will be as long as you’re in Bisbee.) The first view was taken just above City Park on Taylor Avenue. In this view, if you look closely, you can see the entrance to the cave in the right center just to the left of the tan/gray slump block building. OK Street is at the top of the concrete wall above the brown fence.
Two views of the steps up to the cave lot from Brewery, the only means of egress without a very tall ladder!
Do you see a gate leading to the lot? It’s not visible from the street! On the left there is no gate visible at all. By moving down Brewery a few steps, one sees a gate marked ‘Private’ leading into the yard of the house to the right of it. The cave lot is behind the building on the left. The frame below was taken from up on OK Street looking back down. The cave is right under the brown fence.
Finally, the view from the balcony of 226 Opera. Can you find the cave lot?
It’s between the brown house in the foreground and the one that seems to be right behind it. Only the roof and a little section of the gable can be seen.
The frame below looks at the side of 75 OK Street. It is the yellow/orange one with the garage underneath. The cave lot is behind and fifty feet or so up behind me.
The view of 75 OK from below it. The only really good thing about this house was the garage.
And so on to 130 Brewery Avenue. The frame below was shot from roughly the same spot on OK Street as the one above. This house is right on Brewery Avenue and has a parking pad directly to the right of the front retaining wall. We were told that the cluster of buildings to the right of 130 was, at one time, a brothel! One can speculate, but probably shouldn’t, about the inhabitants today.
The next view is of the top of the old brothel taken from the balcony of 226 Opera. Although 130 Brewery is almost directly below 226 Opera, the view of the house is blocked by houses that are between Brewery and Opera.
The small figurine at lower center is on the patio of the house directly across and below Opera from 226.
I want to point out that all four of the properties, two vacant lots and two houses, that we viewed with Eliza Adams can be seen, or almost seen, anyway, from the balcony of 226 Opera.
I am closing this essay with two additional views of 226 Opera both taken from OK Street some couple of hundred feet apart. The first features OK Street in the foreground and 226 just below center. The brown house above is a guest-house at 226B Opera Drive.
The viewpoint for this shot was about 200 feet further up OK Street than the previous one.
This is the clearest view of the front of 226 Opera that I have showing the front wall of the ‘down-under’ which stretches the length of the house but only underlies the front two rooms. It has a natural bedrock wall at the back. The guesthouse at 226B can be clearly seen above as well as the two houses that are below street level. The small building on the right is a very old garage that actually belongs to 226B and is for the exclusive use of their guests!
And in closing, two views of the original door to the ‘down-under’ part of 226, one showing it’s location in relation to the rest of the house. The current door out of the frame on the right, at a right angle to the original.
If you have made it this far I hope you have enjoyed my photographs. Whether you have enjoyed them or no, please scroll down and leave a comment regarding what you think.
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Forever Bisbee 