Hotel St. Michael invites guests in with a nod to Prescott’s past.
The Lobby Bar is a calm, spacious room with enough easy chairs and sofas for 60 guests and still some elbow room. Quiet conversation is a virtue here. Daylight streams in from tall, arched windows and contemporary chandeliers cast soft light on the room in the evening.
The walls are adorned with exhibits of Prescott’s past, including rodeo posters, political memorabilia of Sen. Barry Goldwater and images of two Hollywood cowboys with ties to Prescott – Tom Mix and Steve McQueen as Junior Bonner.
Brad Courtney, a Prescott historian, said he has enjoyed several visits to the Lobby Bar.
“There is a lot of room and as far as hanging with friends, you can actually talk without having to practically yell,” Courtney said. “All in all, I think it is the best thing along the Row now, and I hope it catches on.”
The Lobby Bar’s cocktail menu features a St. Michael Old Fashioned, Blood Orange Margarita and Hemingway Daiquiri. Craft beer choices include two lagers and an IPA. A short wine list has chardonnay, cabernet, sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, pinot grigio and a red blend. It’s served by the glass or bottle.
Hotel St. Michael General Manager Regina Kilmer said the Lobby Bar is now open seven days a week after opening in December in the hotel’s former banquet room. Business has been good, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, when a piano player entertains guests.
The Lobby Bar is just one of several improvements planned for the hotel since new owners took over in March 2023, Kilmer said.
Prescott Hotel SO LLC bought the St. Michael from K&G Services Inc. for $7.95 million.
Springboard Hospitality took over the management of Hotel St. Michael in May 2023. The company manages 47 hotels in 13 states, including Wilde Resort & Spa in Sedona, Harbor Court Hotel in San Francisco and Anvil Hotel in Jackson, Wyoming.
All 70 hotel rooms at Hotel St. Michael will be remodeled and the hotel is seeking building permits to open a bar in the basement with a speakeasy vibe, Kilmer said. A bar called J.R.’s previously operated in the basement, but it’s been closed for 30 years.
Hotel St. Michael as a cornerstone of Whiskey Row has a long history. It was preceded by the Hotel Burke, which opened on the same corner in 1891. It was promoted as a fireproof building but burned down in the big fire of July 1900 that leveled Whiskey Row.
Dennis Burke, with his business partner Michael Hickey, built the three-story hotel that exists today. It opened in 1901 as the new Hotel Burke.
Burke served two terms as Prescott mayor and was in the 24th Territorial Legislature. Hickey was a deputy sheriff.
In 1907, Burke sold his interest in the hotel to Hickey, who renamed it Hotel St. Michael.
Hotel St. Michael is the oldest hotel in Prescott. It also had the city’s first elevator, an Otis lift, installed in 1925, according to Kilmer.
The hotel overlooks Prescott’s Courthouse Plaza.
“With our great location we have all the events down here – the parades and courthouse lighting,” Kilmer said. “We’re sought out by folks because all the action is down here.”
The hotel staff does its best to earn customers’ repeat business.
“We go out of our way to make the guests feel they’re at home, that this is a place they can continue to come back to each time they visit Prescott,” Kilmer said. QCBN
By Peter Corbett, QCBN
The Lobby Bar, at 205 W. Gurley St., is open from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
Photo by Peter Corbett: The spacious Lobby Bar at Hotel St. Michael has comfortable seating and elbow room for its guests.
