Jerome, Arizona - Grand Hotel - House of Joy

The information from the person who lived in Clarkdale is not accurate. The hotel next to the House of Joy (which was not a brothel, but a rooming house) is the Hotel Jerome. The building which is now the Grand Hotel was a hospital provided by the mining company. The building he was referring to as the hospital, now a residence, was an earlier hospital. People were living there, but I don't think it was ever legally a residence. I lived in Jerome during the remodeling of the Grand Hotel. [AGray, 06/18/2009]

The information on Jerome, Arizona, about staying at the Jerome Grand Hotel ("which was once the hospital") is simply not true. The old hospital sits on the upper level of Cleopatra Hill, which is where Jerome sits, on the side of Mingus Mountain. The old hospital was converted into a residence and some apartments back in the 1970s. The old Jerome Grand Hotel, down in the middle elevation level of Jerome, near the "House of Joy," really was an old hotel in Jerome's copper mining peak years.

How do I know all this? I lived in the Clarkdale and Cottonwood area right next to Jerome for 19 years. I attended high school in Jerome from 1965 to 1969.

Jerome's Chamber of Commerce used to advertise itself as "The world's most unique ghost town." This was because the population of Jerome used to be 15,000 but today it is less than 500. Not every other house was a brothel either. The current mayor lives in an old brothel, though.

Tourists should really visit the Mine Museum downtown for more accurate information about the area, or visit the Chamber of Commerce itself. [Ed Pemoy, 08/20/2000]