Historic Downtown Flagstaff

The Hotel Monte Vista at 100 North San Francisco Street is the most prominent surviving Route 66-era hotel in downtown Flagstaff and one of the most photographed buildings in the district. Constructed in 1926 — the same year Route 66 was officially designated — the Monte Vista was financed by community subscription as a project to provide first-class lodging for the new wave of motor tourists and railroad travelers passing through Flagstaff. The four-story brick building remains structurally and architecturally close to its original design, with the iconic Hotel Monte Vista neon rooftop sign that has become one of the most recognized symbols of historic Flagstaff.

Through the 1930s and 1940s, the Monte Vista hosted a remarkable parade of Hollywood celebrities who came to northern Arizona for film shoots in the surrounding red-rock and high-country landscapes. John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Carole Lombard, Theodore Roosevelt, Clark Gable, Esther Williams, Jane Russell, and dozens of other film-era stars stayed at the Monte Vista during this period, and the hotel still names many of its rooms for the celebrities who stayed in them. The hotel's celebrity guest list during the studio-system era is genuinely one of the more remarkable in any Route 66 hotel.

The hotel is also famously haunted — the lobby and several specific rooms have reported paranormal encounters across decades, and the property has been featured on numerous television ghost-hunting programs. Most of the reported phenomena are mild (faucets turning on, doors opening, footsteps in empty hallways) but the cumulative reputation has made the Monte Vista one of the most-discussed haunted hotels in the American Southwest. The cocktail lounge in the lobby remains a Flagstaff institution and is a recommended stop even for visitors not staying at the hotel.

The Babbitt Brothers Building at 12 East Aspen Avenue was constructed in 1888 by the five Babbitt brothers — David, George, William, Charles, and Edward — who came to Flagstaff from Cincinnati and built one of the most substantial mercantile and ranching empires in territorial Arizona. The original Babbitt Brothers building was a single-story stone structure that the brothers used as the headquarters of their general-merchandise store, cattle-ranching operations, and various other commercial ventures across the high country. The building was expanded and updated multiple times over subsequent decades and remains one of the oldest commercial buildings in downtown Flagstaff, currently housing a mix of retail and restaurant uses.

The Babbitt family eventually became one of the most prominent ranching and political families in Arizona — Bruce Babbitt, born in Flagstaff in 1938, served as Arizona's governor from 1978 to 1987 and as U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. The Babbitt Brothers store remained in operation for over a century as a Flagstaff institution before finally closing in the late 20th century. The building's surviving original stonework and 19th-century commercial architecture make it one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the downtown core.

The Weatherford Hotel at the corner of Aspen Avenue and Leroux Street is another defining downtown landmark, constructed in 1898 by John Weatherford as a substantial three-story brick hotel for railroad travelers and Flagstaff visitors. The Weatherford operated as a hotel through the 1920s and was at one point Flagstaff's most prestigious lodging address; it currently operates as a restaurant, bar, and small inn with a remarkable rooftop ballroom (the Zane Grey Ballroom, named for the Western novelist who wrote portions of several books while staying at the hotel) that hosts the famous Flagstaff New Year's Eve Pinecone Drop every December 31.

Heritage Square at the corner of Aspen Avenue and Leroux Street is the symbolic heart of downtown Flagstaff and the location of most of the downtown's major community events. The square is a small but well-designed public plaza with a covered stage at the north end, a brick-paved central gathering area, and surrounding seating that can accommodate several hundred people for events. The square underwent a substantial renovation in the early 2000s and now functions as one of the more successful small-town public squares in the American Southwest.

The Heritage Square Concert Series runs every summer from late May through early September, with free outdoor concerts on most Friday and Saturday evenings featuring a mix of regional Americana, country, rock, jazz, and acoustic artists. The concerts typically draw 200 to 500 attendees depending on the act, with most attendees bringing their own folding chairs or blankets and sitting on the brick plaza. Adjacent restaurants typically do takeout business during concert evenings, and the surrounding bars get busy after the concerts end at around 9pm.

Beyond the summer concert series, Heritage Square hosts the weekly Flagstaff Farmers Market on Sunday mornings from late May through October, the annual Flagstaff Festival of Science kickoff in September, various smaller community gatherings, and the New Year's Eve festivities centered on the Weatherford Hotel's Pinecone Drop. The square is also a popular informal gathering space for NAU students throughout the academic year.

Historic downtown Flagstaff has developed one of the most genuinely strong small-city restaurant and brewery scenes in the American Southwest, driven by a combination of NAU student population, year-round tourism from Route 66 and Grand Canyon travelers, and the substantial summer-resident population that flees the Phoenix heat for Flagstaff's high-country cool. The result is a downtown with several genuinely good breweries, a handful of serious independent restaurants, multiple coffeehouses, and the kind of casual-fine-dining options that small cities elsewhere in the West typically don't support.

The brewery scene is particularly strong. Beaver Street Brewery on Beaver Street (one block south of Route 66) has been Flagstaff's anchor craft brewery since 1994 and remains the standard recommendation for first-time visitors. Mother Road Brewing Company (named for Route 66) and Historic Brewing's downtown taproom add additional craft-beer destinations within a short walk. Most downtown breweries serve substantial food menus rather than just drinks, making them functional dinner destinations rather than just bars.

Beyond the breweries, Macy's European Coffeehouse on South Beaver Street is the iconic downtown coffeehouse and has been serving Flagstaff since the 1980s. Diablo Burger (a small local burger chain with a flagship downtown location), Pizzicletta (a serious wood-fired pizza restaurant), Tinderbox Kitchen, and Brix Restaurant and Wine Bar are typically the top recommendations for non-brewery dinner options. The combination of these spots, the historic atmosphere, and the easy walking distances makes downtown Flagstaff one of the more genuinely satisfying small-city food destinations in the Southwest.

Most downtown visitors find that a 1.5- to 2-hour walking exploration is sufficient to cover the main historic blocks and get a strong sense of the district. A natural walking route starts at the Flagstaff Visitor Center in the historic 1926 Santa Fe train depot at the south edge of downtown, crosses the BNSF railroad tracks north to Route 66 itself, follows Route 66 east past the major historic buildings, turns north up San Francisco Street past the Hotel Monte Vista, reaches Heritage Square at Aspen Avenue, and returns south through the historic core. Adding stops for shopping, a beer or coffee, or a meal extends the visit to 3 or 4 hours easily.

Downtown pairs naturally with the rest of Flagstaff for a full-day itinerary. The classic plan: spend the morning walking downtown and having breakfast at Macy's European Coffeehouse, drive 5 minutes west to Lowell Observatory for an afternoon tour, return downtown for dinner at Beaver Street Brewery, and overnight at the Hotel Monte Vista for the full historic-Route-66 experience. This sequence covers Flagstaff's three signature destinations and gives visitors a genuine sense of why Flagstaff is one of the most celebrated stops on the entire Mother Road.

For visitors using Flagstaff as a base for the surrounding region, downtown is the natural daily starting and ending point. Morning departures for Grand Canyon (90 miles north), Sedona (45 miles south via Oak Creek Canyon), Walnut Canyon (10 miles east), Wupatki and Sunset Crater (45 minutes north), Williams (35 miles west), or Winslow (60 miles east on I-40) all typically include a downtown coffee stop before heading out and a downtown dinner upon return. The walkable downtown core is genuinely one of Flagstaff's most valuable visitor amenities.