The Jerome Grand Hotel is set in the Verde Valley on the summit of Cleopatra Hill, the highest point in the town of Jerome, and it boasts breathtaking views of the surrounding area. It’s a Spanish Mission style building that is large and substantial due to its original purpose as a hospital. It is a remarkable feat of engineering, as it is constructed of concrete that was poured in place on a mountainside that slopes 50 degrees.

The Grand Hotel Jerome is five stories high, with guest rooms on the upper floors, all of which are furnished in the period style of the 1920s. There are suites with full kitchens, and some rooms have access to lovely, plant-filled sun porches. In spite of the hotel’s historic past, it boasts modern amenities—from an ATM in the lobby to ice and drink machines. A complimentary continental breakfast is served every morning until 11 am, when the well-respected local restaurant opens. Jerome is known as one of the most “haunted” towns in the United States, and the Grand Hotel boasts its own spectral legends. On select weekdays, the hotel hosts a popular ghost-hunting tour available only to its guests. Apparitions are said to appear and strange sounds are heard. The bottom of the elevator shaft is examined, where a hospital orderly was found mysteriously crushed to death in 1935, even though no defect was found in the elevator.

Jerome Grand Hotel Restaurant

In keeping with its history as a hospital, the Jerome Grand Hotel restaurant is called The Asylum. It boasts breathtaking views over the Verde Valley, Sedona, and Flagstaff areas, and it is also an award-winning gourmet establishment known for its extensive list of famous boutique wines and for its innovative and elegant menu.

Arizona Map

History of the Jerome Grand Hotel

Built in 1926, the Jerome Grand Hotel began life in January 1927 as a state-of-the-art hospital, heralded at the time as the most modern medical facility in the American West. It is a large Spanish Mission style building sitting high up and dominating the town’s landscape. As mining was being phased out, the hospital closed in 1950. The town itself slowly began to die around the grand old building even though it was still maintained as an emergency facility until 1971. By 1971, the town only boasted about 100 residents, down from as many as 15,000 in 1929. Artists and artisans arrived and began to set up shops and workshops, which attracted tourists. Over the next 20 years, more and more visitors came to this town and spent money here. A number of bed and breakfast inns opened, and a new hotel became a viable financial possibility. The building was sold in 1994, and it opened as a hotel in 1996. Because it had been so well maintained while unused, renovations were able to utilize 95 percent of its original state. Even its Otis elevator is original—and still operational. The first self-service Otis elevator (meaning it did not require an elevator operator) was installed in a Chicago Illinois hospital in 1925, and Grand Hotel elevator was installed a year later. It’s still running reliably; according to the hotel, the elevator has been out of service for only about four hours total over the past ten years.