An Arizona Mining Town

When I drove to New Mexico a few weeks ago, I stopped in Globe Arizona for lunch and to take a look a few of the historic buildings that I had read about.  The city of Globe was founded in 1875 as a mining camp and mining has played an important role in the city ever since.  Copper is mined near here and the city has one of the few remaining copper smelters in the U.S.

Above is the original Gila County Court House.  Globe is the county seat for Gila County.  Today this building houses the Cobra Valley Center for the Arts.

Another historic building is the Holy Angels Church.  Built in 1918, this church is still active today.

I see a few holy angels were looking down on me as I took these photos.

Another wonderful old building is the former Gila Valley Bank and Trust Building.  This 1909 building is clad in glazed terra cotta and is noted as the first building in Arizona to used that type of cladding.

It no longer has bank facilities inside.  I peeked through the doors and found that the building now houses a barber shop.  I found that to be a rather sad state of affairs.

If Globe were a bigger town, I could picture all kinds of interesting uses for this finely detailed building.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this concrete teepee is.  It sits in a park just north of the church above.  It looks so good against that gorgeous sky, I had to include it with the historic buildings too.