I first visited Jerome in 1976, coming to Prescott to attend a wedding of a relocated Californian.Since I was always interested in mining and ghost towns, my friend took me over to Jerome. I didn't know much about Arizona--thought that there would be apaches behind every rock. We came over in a monsoon and I first saw the town coming out of a fog-seemed like I had been transported in a time machine. I was fascinated and returned to the area and got grounded in the many interesting local features. In l989, we where driving through Jerome and my wife said we had never been off the main drag, so we went down school street and found a darling old building that had fallen into foreclosure after a rehabilation attempt. We peeked through the windows and saw very interesting interior and we investigated buying the building and finishing the project. The building is at the corner of school and center and had been a church and subsequent businesses. We were a little hesitant about getting involved in an unfinished project that had been abandoned by the last owner. Fortunately, we had an excellent contractor and the building was restored and has been a triplex since then. We keep a studio within the building and get back periodically. I guess it was fate that drew me to Jerome but there is no where like it in the American West. We had a boy after redoing the building and he grew up in a "ghost town". When he was little he would ask where all the ghosts were. Eventually, I responded that they were probably down in the cemetery. He then asked to go down to the cemetery to check it out. Jerome's cemetery is out of town on a hill--straight out of a Hollywood horror film. I drove him down at dusk on a motorcycle and when we got to the gate and shut the engine off, he decided he didn't need to check it out after all! The next morning his courage returned and he insisted that I take him back to the cemetery. In the morning light he didn't see why people would be afraid of ghosts. I then reminded him that the building had been an early church and that some of the people we were visiting had probably been in our living room. I think he had problems sleeping in the building thereafter.

Joseph Holcombe