I imagine what I would have seen if I had a seat in the
upper South East facing room for one hundred and fifteen years. In addition to about 42,000 sunrises above
the iron colored hills to the East, a good part of Bisbee history unfolded on
this corner of Howell Avenue and Brewery Gulch. In 1910 I could watch as the first trolley car
was inaugurated to a crowd of over 6,000 cheering men and women. From this sunny room in 1912 the first shot
from a .45 caliber revolver celebrated the beginning of Arizona as a State. I
could look across the hill to see the Glory Hole Mine shaft entrance, one of
the most celebrated and productive mine shafts in the world. I could listen to the miners walk below my
window on their way to the bars up brewery gulch in a twenty-four hour a day
parade of commerce and commotion. No
doubt the voices of Hollywood actors like John Wayne, Victor Mature, and Lee
Marvin would walk below my window and pause to take in the vantage point as
well. It was a corner of Bisbee that
could see just about everything.
The building housed dozens of businesses from a Pharmacy,
Western Union, bath houses, apartments, tortilla factory, and most recently the
Miners Diner and popular French Bistro, Le Chen. Nearly 100 years later, it was completely
renovated by business developer John Brinley, for whom it has been affectionately
named by our family who purchased it in 2006.
Mr. Brinley not only saved the building from collapse but also lovingly
restored it to its current state and worked to ensure it would enjoy a future
as a bustling business location.
Santiago’s Mexican restaurant enjoys the privilege of being
the longest continuously operating restaurant in the Brinley building along
with the San Ramon Hotel directly above the restaurant. These business’s bookend 115 years of family
history in Bisbee in what was once my French Immigrant Great-Grandfathers
leasehold, the Central Pharmacy in 1901. I’m told if he looked to the South East he
could see my Great Grandmothers boardinghouse.
I wonder if he could have imagined his Grandchildren and Great-Grand
children sitting in the Southeast window, the smell of family recipes simmering
in the kitchen and the love and respect they had for the beautiful town
called Bisbee.
