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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eighty-eight: Exploring the historic back roads of the American Southwest > Lobby, Gadsden Hotel, Douglas, Arizona, 2014
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16-JAN-2014

Lobby, Gadsden Hotel, Douglas, Arizona, 2014

The Gadsden’s lobby is built around its original 1907 Italian marble staircase, surrounded by four Italian marble columns each capped with 14k gold leaf worth $20,000 in 1929. The entire 42-foot Tiffany stained glass mural can be seen at the top of the stairs. This space was once known as the “living room” for the cattlemen, ranchers, miners, and businessmen in the Arizona Territory. While I was photographing the lobby from a second floor balcony, I noticed my photographic colleague Tim May admiring the scene downstairs, and used him to lend a sense of scale to this 24mm wideangle image. I saw very few current guests during our shoot in this hotel, but I could easily imagine those cattle barons and mining magnates sitting here trading stories and doing business over a few cigars and some bourbon. The hotel, said to be haunted, keeps a logbook for people to record experiences with “spiritual turbulence.”

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Phil Douglis12-Mar-2014 04:30
There are many hotels in Arizona that are considered haunted. Not just the Gadsden in Douglas and the Congress in Tucson, but the Weatherford and Monte Vista in Flagstaff, the San Carlos in Phoenix, the Grand Hotel in Jerome, the Copper Queen in Bisbee, and the El Tovar at the Grand Canyon. For a complete list, see:http://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-hauntedhotels.html
Iris Maybloom (irislm)11-Mar-2014 19:30
So do the reports of "spiritual turbulence" occur at all historic hotels in Arizona? Remember the one we encountered at the Congress Hotel when I walked into a room and saw the "spirit at rest" on a chair? Oh, what the mind can conjure up when faced with haunting possibilities!!! http://www.pbase.com/irislm/image/118619211)
Phil Douglis11-Mar-2014 17:55
Thanks, Iris. The grandeur and history are certainly present, but the reality of economic decay lurks just below the surface in places such as this.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)11-Mar-2014 03:24
What a special place! It just exudes grandeur and history, as you show in your four images of this hotel.
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