Historic tour of Globe brings back Old West

A grand old post office contrasts with the quaint dwelling of a common postal worker on a tour going on this weekend in Globe.

The town’s 25th annual Historic Home and Building Tour is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Among the stops are a newly restored cafe — once a town gathering spot — and six vintage homes and cottages.

“We’re expecting between 800 and 1,000 people, and we have close to 100 volunteers helping drive shuttles, sell tickets, open car doors and act as hosts. It’s a real community effort,” says Ellen Kretsch, director of the Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce.

A colorful mining town founded in the late 1800s, Globe has a downtown lined with authentic territorial-era and early 20th century buildings that are still in use as shops, eateries, day spas, galleries, offices and apartments. Its hillsides and canyons are peppered with dwellings that harken back to the same period.

“We’re always kind of ‘being discovered’ by people who have driven through for years on their way to the White Mountains but have never stopped. And you really have to stop; you don’t see these older parts of town if you never get off the highway,” says Kretsch.

During the tour, shuttles will transport tourists to each stop, and guides at each site will provide history and interpretation. The $10-$15 admission fee gets patrons a souvenir copper ticket — appropriate since the mineral gave rise to the town — and entry to an antique show at Globe High School, which dates from the early 1900s, and a quilt exhibit at the Cobre Valley Center for the Arts, a gallery and studio space housed in the town’s formidable 1910 courthouse building.

A train robbery show by Old West re-enactment group Mohave Muleskinners takes place at 1 p.m. Saturday at downtown’s Copper Spike Train Depot, says Kretsch.

The town has a variety of chain and locally owned restaurants, but two meals are offered in conjunction with the tour: A $4 pancake breakfast is 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. each day, and a $6 chili-and-cornbread lunch is 11 a.m. Saturday. Both are at the St. Paul’s United Methodist church, one block north of Broad Street, downtown’s main drag.

25th annual Historic Home and Building Tour
What: Craftsman-style homes, a restored cafe and an historic post office are among the eight stops on this shuttled tour of old, interesting structures in an Arizona mining town.
When: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Where: Tours start at the Copper Spike Train Depot at the intersection of Broad and Sycamore streets in downtown Globe. Globe is about 65 miles east of the Valley on U.S. 60.
Cost: $15 for adults and children; $10 for seniors. Price includes a souvenir copper ticket and admission to an antiques show and quilt exhibit.
Information: (800) 804-5623