The Historic Vernetta Hotel, Wickenburg, AZ

The Vernetta Hotel (now the Hassayampa Building), is an example of early black entrepreneurship in the old west. Mrs. Elizabeth Hudson Smith, Alabama... more

by Gordon Beck

Title

The Historic Vernetta Hotel, Wickenburg, AZ

Artist

Gordon Beck

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

The Vernetta Hotel (now the Hassayampa Building), is an example of early black entrepreneurship in the old west. Mrs. Elizabeth Hudson Smith, Alabama born and the daughter of a freed slave, was an educated black businesswoman with a head for figures. She and her husband, Bill Smith, came west to Wickenburg, AZ in 1897. They were employed as help in an old rundown adobe hotel which had fallen on hard times (she cooked, he tended bar). When the owner offered to sell it to them, they jumped at the chance and turned it into a thriving business, even adding a second floor. The Santa Fe Railroad noticed, and encouraged them to open a better hotel near the train station to accommodate the growing number of travelers to the prosperous gold-mining town. Elizabeth employed one of the best architects in Phoenix and then had this handsome 50-guest brick hotel built, opening it in 1905. Although her husband eventually left, she stayed on and bought other properties and became a pillar of the community for some thirty years.

Uploaded

June 26th, 2020