HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
An 1890s Prescott commercial block tied to the outlaw Fleming Parker, hanged in 1898 for killing a court official
105 S Cortez St, Prescott, AZ 86303
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Gallery browsing is free during business hours. No admission charge to view the building's exterior on Cortez Street.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown commercial block on Cortez Street, near Courthouse Plaza. Paved sidewalks.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1892 · Bashford-Burmister Company Mercantile History · James Fleming Parker Execution (1898) · Prescott Territorial Downtown
The Bashford-Burmister Building sits on Cortez Street near Courthouse Plaza in downtown Prescott. It is associated with the Bashford-Burmister Company, which grew into one of the largest mercantile operations in northern Arizona during the territorial era. Local accounts describe the building as one of the city's earliest multi-story commercial blocks, sometimes called Arizona's first 'skyscraper,' built in the early 1890s.
The site's dark reputation comes from the case of James Fleming Parker. Parker robbed an Atlantic and Pacific train and was being held in the Yavapai County jail to await trial. He led a jailbreak, and in the course of the escape he fatally shot a court official. Contemporary accounts identify the man he killed as a deputy or assistant in the district attorney's office; Prescott histories name him as Lee Norris.
Parker was recaptured, tried, and hanged on June 3, 1898, on Courthouse Square in Prescott — within sight of the building and the plaza. His execution was one of the last public-style hangings in the Arizona Territory and remains a fixture of local true-crime history. Today the ground floor of the building operates as Tis Art Center and Gallery, and the structure stands as a restored piece of Prescott's downtown commercial fabric.
Sources
The building's haunted reputation is tied loosely to the violence of the Fleming Parker case and to the general lore of Prescott's oldest commercial blocks. The Sharlot Hall Museum's account of haunted Prescott lists several spirits said to linger in the building. Among them is a young girl named Mary and a Chinese man described as having cleaned the building in an earlier era.
The reports are anecdotal and circulate mainly through local ghost-tour narration rather than documented investigation. As with much of Prescott's downtown lore, the stories have accumulated over decades, drawing on the building's age, its connection to a notorious execution nearby, and the cast of characters who once worked and lived along Cortez Street.
Visitors today encounter the building as a working art gallery rather than a staged attraction, and the ghost stories remain a matter of retelling rather than verified phenomena. The legend is best understood as part of the broader haunted-history tradition that downtown Prescott has cultivated around Courthouse Plaza and Whiskey Row.
Notable Entities
Walk Cortez Street to see the late-1800s commercial block that locals describe as one of Prescott's earliest tall buildings. The ground floor houses Tis Art Center and Gallery, open to browse during business hours. The exterior and downtown setting near Courthouse Plaza can be viewed any time as a free self-guided stop.
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