Douglas is one of the most southerly towns in Arizona, just a few miles from the border with Mexico. On its main street, G Street, stands the Gadsden Hotel which first opened in 1907. It was destroyed in a fire and rebuilt in the Art Nouveau style re-opening in 1929. It has a magnificent Tiffany stained glass window overlooking the lobby, which also has a sweeping staircase of Italian marble and gold leaf decorating the tops of the pillars.
The skylights in the lobby are stained glass on the inside; on the outside protective plain glass covers have been constructed.
On your way to the elevators, you will pass this beautiful drinking fountain.
Once you reach the elevator you need to await hotel staff to operate it. There is no inner door and no automatic level control of the car. With practice, the staff know how long to hold the handle at ‘up’ or ‘down’ to match the floor of the car to that of the building.
The hotel is quite large with 3 stories of about 20 rooms each.
Judging by the traffic in the lobby and the restaurant I suspect its occupancy rate is not particularly high although the food is good and the room and shower very comfortable. There is a refurbishment project in progress and hopefully the glory of the hotel will be preserved by visiting bird spotters and the grandeur of the hotel is retained.
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