10 Most Charming Town Squares In Arizona

Most Arizona small towns started with copper or cattle or the railroad, and many kept the square the boom built. Some have turned those centers into art walks and tasting rooms, others still run on saloons and storefronts barely changed in a century. A few feel almost European, with adobe arcades and shaded plazas. What they share is a center worth slowing down in rather than driving through. These are ten Arizona town squares that reward a long walk.

Tempe

Tempe folds a college town into a Phoenix suburb, and its downtown packs everything within a few steps. The Tempe Center for the Arts sits on the waterfront, a 600-seat theater with a gallery and a sculpture garden looking out over the Salt River. Around the square, House of Tricks serves its food under a canopy of trees and string lights in a turn-of-the-century house. Caffe Boa on Mill Avenue runs a long wine list beside house-made pasta. For the view, the Alibi Rooftop Lounge on the 14th floor of the Canopy by Hilton looks out over the Valley and the mountains. The whole center works on foot, which is the point.

Tombstone

Tombstone still trades on the 1880s, and Allen Street is where it lives, dirt-packed and lined with wooden boardwalks. The O.K. Corral and the C.S. Fly photo studio anchor the history, the studio founded by the man who photographed the era's outlaws. Cowboy Coffee Bar pours espresso and cuts its butter cake inside an 1880s building with windows onto the street. The Crystal Palace Saloon keeps its mahogany booths and live music going where they always have. At the end of the walk, the Tombstone Epitaph still runs a working print shop, the old newspaper's signage and display windows intact. It is a square that never left the decade that made it.

Prescott

Prescott centers on Courthouse Plaza, a shaded square where the 1916 granite Yavapai County Courthouse anchors the view and people actually sit on the benches. The town sits just over a mile high, with Victorian homes and old cottages lining the downtown streets. The Russell Gallery of Fine Art and Raskin's Art show Southwestern paintings and sculpture, with jewelry in the adjoining shop. Whiskey Row runs the historic block of saloons turned shops and bars, and Nelly Bly on Montezuma Street stocks clothing and gifts. The Peacock Room in the 1927 Hotel Hassayampa serves American plates in a 1920s dining room with live piano. The plaza is the kind of center a town builds its day around.

Ajo

Ajo turned a closed copper mine into an arts town, and its plaza is one of the most striking in the state. Oasis Coffee opens onto the square with lattes and paninis and a view of the comings and goings. Artists Alley runs nearby, its historic buildings carrying murals and painted touches. The Curley School, a 1919 schoolhouse, now holds live-work apartments and studios for local artists, with exhibits and a bell tower inside. The center is Ajo Plaza itself, a U-shaped Spanish Colonial Revival square of whitewashed arcades around a green lawn, with white churches at the ends. It is built to be walked, slowly, with a camera.

Tubac

Tubac grew up around a Spanish presidio established in 1752 and later reinvented itself as an artists' colony along the Santa Cruz River. The plaza blends into the landscape, adobe and blooming trees and stone. The Tubac Center of the Arts runs rotating Southwestern shows across its galleries, admission free. The Cobalt Fine Arts Gallery leans contemporary and regional, the kind of room a collector lingers in. Flying Leap Vineyards keeps a tasting room and gallery in one, pouring Arizona wines among the art. The Tubac Golf Resort closes the day with patio dining over the fairways and the old cottonwoods.

Seligman

Seligman is the Route 66 town that helped save the road. It inspired Radiator Springs in the film Cars, and it still runs without a single stoplight, lined with motels, memorabilia shops, and vintage cars parked along the curb. Angel & Vilma Delgadillo's Route 66 Gift Shop carries signed books and rare memorabilia, named for the barber known as the Kindly Crusader, who led the fight to preserve the highway. Seligman Sundries deals in antiques and vintage finds a cut above the usual souvenir stop. The classic cars parked along the street are the real photo op. Lilo's Cafe closes the day with comfort food and the nostalgia the whole town runs on.

Winslow

Winslow is the town with the corner. The Eagles' "Take It Easy" put it on the map, and travelers still come to photograph the spot at Standin' on the Corner Park. The center holds the restored La Posada Hotel, a Mary Colter landmark, along with a gallery and one of the Southwest's best-known dining rooms. The Turquoise Room works a modern take on Southwestern cooking, the prime steak and squash blossoms among its sought-after plates, served under a chandelier and carved furnishings. The La Posada also houses the Winslow Studio Artists Gallery, with the Arcade Gallery next door showing metalwork and sculpture by John Suttman. The La Posada Trading Post stocks Hopi and Navajo pottery, Native American jewelry, and Southwestern rugs. It is a small center built around one very famous corner.

Cottonwood

Cottonwood keeps its rural roots while Old Town fills with tasting rooms, the rare Arizona square that leads with wine. The Tavern Hotel pairs 1920s details with a heated pool and a concierge in a boutique stay off the main street. Burning Tree Cellars pours Arizona wine by the batch on a patio with fire pits. Merkin Vineyards Hilltop Winery & Trattoria, owned by musician Maynard James Keenan, sets estate Arizona wines beside handmade pasta and wood-oven pizza around a central bar and piano. The center stays small and walkable, farm country at the edges. It is the slower, greener stop on this list.

Globe

Globe sits about 90 minutes east of Phoenix, close enough for a day trip and far enough to feel like another era. The historic square is walkable, stitched with old storefronts, museums, and art spaces. The Chrysocolla Inn overlooks downtown from a building that recalls the late-1800s mining boom, with clawfoot tubs, chandeliers, and garden patios. The Cobre Valley Center for the Arts fills the 1906 Gila County Courthouse with galleries and studios of local Arizona artists. Along Broad Street, antique shops and vintage stores carry Southwestern goods and collectibles. The Pickle Barrel Trading Post deals in Native American art and turquoise, including the local Sleeping Beauty and Kingman stones.

Jerome

Jerome clings to Cleopatra Hill above the Verde Valley, a copper boomtown that emptied out and came back as an artists' town. It once earned the nickname the Wickedest Town in the West, and it is often billed as the largest ghost town in America. Jerome State Historic Park preserves the Douglas Mansion and the mining story, with long views down the valley. Nellie Bly on Main Street, billed as the largest kaleidoscope shop in the world, sells crystallized kaleidoscopes and Swarovski art. Caduceus Cellars and the Merkin Vineyards tasting room, both run by Maynard James Keenan, pour award-winning Arizona wine. The Asylum Restaurant, up at the old hospital turned hotel, closes the day with valley views and American plates.

Walking Arizona's Squares

Arizona's town squares hold more than Old West sets and mine tailings. Some run on galleries and tasting rooms now, others still on saloons and Route 66 nostalgia, and a few on adobe plazas that feel a long way from the desert highway. The thread is that each center rewards parking the car and walking it. Pick the one that fits the day, the mining history or the wine or the art. These are squares to linger in, not pass through.