The Silver King Hotel

Florence, Arizona

The Silver King Hotel, Photo taken December 25, 2007
The appearance in this photo is very similar to that of the hotel in 1895, except in 1895 the 2nd floor windows did not have the white safety bars.

History of the The Silver King Hotel

The Silver King Hotel in Florence, Arizona was built in 1876 by William Long, who was a partner in the Silver King Mine. The actual mine was 35 miles away, near the current town of Globe, Arizona. Florence was the nearest well-established town to the mine at that time, so the mine headquarters were set up in Florence. The lure of silver created an influx of wealth-seekers coming to town hoping to make their fortune. Mr. Long decided to diversify beyond mining and built both the hotel and a dry-goods store in Florence.

The original Silver King Hotel building was an L-shaped adobe structure, with the main building fronting on Main Street and a side wing fronting along 6th Street. In the photo above the cars are parked on Main Street, 6th Street is the side street to the left. The original hotel building had a gable roof, in contrast to the flat roofs common for the area at that time. After 14 years operating as the Silver King, the hotel was renamed the Florence Hotel in 1890. In 1893 the front portion of the hotel on Main Street burned. The side wing on 6th Street survived, but the main portion fronting on Main Street was torn down. Around 1895 a new 2-story fired-clay red-brick structure was built on the Main Street side, which remains today. See the photo above and more photos on the virtual tour.

The new brick main building of the hotel contained a bar and restaurant on the first floor, with around 15 guest rooms on the second floor. The rear adobe wing on 6th Street was renovated to repair the fire/smoke damage and contained more guest rooms. In the early 1900's the adobe wing was extended all the way back to Granite Street with a 3rd wing parallel to Granite Street (the alley in back.) So the hotel was now U-shaped with a courtyard in the middle. Sometime around 1910 a wood arcade/balcony was built around the exterior of the red-brick main building. The balcony provided a cool place for guests to sit or even sleep on hot evenings.

By 1914 a roof had been added above the second floor balcony, which allowed the balcony area to be used as true sleeping rooms on hot summer nights. Canvas sides could be rolled down to provide some privacy for these outdoor "rooms" on the balcony. By this time the Florence Hotel had become the social focus of Florence, with the finest dining and most modern guest rooms. It also housed the stagecoach office. Demand for rooms was high, and in 1917 a second floor was added to the rear section of the adobe wing to add even more rooms to the hotel.

Over the years the Town of Florence's fortunes waned. Other cities came to prominence and new development bypassed the community. The Florence Hotel similarly fell into a state of decline, or at best, suspended animation.

Despite rough times, the restaurant and bar at the Florence Hotel managed to survive well into the 1970's. Newer lodging was built in town and the rooms at the Florence Hotel shifted to low-rent residential uses rather than serving travelers. Many changes were made to the buildings, windows were filled in, rooms were enlarged, bathrooms were added. Various small fires destroyed parts of the hotel and they were rebuilt. The wood balconies were removed and smaller steel balconies for fire escape purposes were added.

The restaurant and bar closed for good in 1977 and the main red-brick building sat vacant for many years. Some of the back units in the adobe section still served as low-rent housing. In 1995 the building caught fire, the roof was burned off, and little was left but the adobe and brick walls. The buildings were condemned and fenced. Without a roof on the adobe section the rain quickly dissolved the adobe walls, and large portions of them fell down.

As of late 2009, the rear adobe section of the hotel has been torn down. A new wood porch has been installed on the front brick section and the interior has been restored for adaptive reuse. It no longer serves as a hotel.

Additional restoration work on the Silver King Hotel building was completed in January 2009. Photo credit: Lois Stryker.

The new exterior balconies restore the building to the appearance it had in about 1915. Photo credit: Lois Stryker.

Inside the Silver King Hotel building now has retail shop space, restaurant space, and an elevator. Photo credit: Lois Stryker.

Ghosts? There are reports of ghosts at the Silver King Hotel, mostly in the form of disembodied voices heard in the building. Typically ghost reports are tied to famous former visitors to a hotel, or tragic events at the facility in the past. However, I can't find any reports of names or any details for these ghosts.

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