Our most recent review was posted online by a happy guest at The Trip Advisor
Andrea Prince has created a beautiful B & B, perched on the mountainside overlooking the vast Verde Valley, and to
stay with her is a delectable, unique experience. She has made the Surgeon's House a work of art, where color and
light change from room to room, and comfortable nooks abound. Ms. Prince is a quiet dynamo, up early for her morning
meditation followed by her jog about the town of Jerome. I found her after her jog, busy in her marvelous kitchen,
preparing the guest breakfasts. She initially bought the Surgeon's House, from the mining company, to be her primary
residence.
Local artists have contributed to the character of the place, from the interior paint schemes to the
garden stonework and floral plantings. Her home is filled with an eclectic array of art, ranging from Arizona
artists to works by Emmett Fritz, a mid 20th century painter from St. Augustine, Florida. Fritz is a favorite
of Andrea's, as she grew up watching him paint the street secnes of that city, and she has a remarkable collection
of his work.
Andrea denies being an artist, but the point is arguable after one sees her in her kitchen and tastes
her wonderful breakfast creations. She has a 72" Wolf commercial range that she keeps busy, popping such treats as
homemade scones and egg and multi cheese casseroles in and out of the two ovens. She has written three cookbooks
(and she has a CD available that have the recipes and artwork from all three), and she is masterful in her
productions. Without exaggeration, our breakfast was the best that we have ever had in a B & B or most
restaurants, for that matter. There is something for everyone, and plenty of it. Anything left that the
guests do not eat go to the neighbors, which would be a good reason to possibly move to Jerome and be close
to the Surgeon's House! The refrigerator is filled with drinks available at all times, including wines,
and the kitchen counter always has some goodies (chocolate brownies!)
We stayed in the Maid's Room, Front,
and our windows overlooked the Valley and Andrea's Garden. The bed was comfortable and loaded with pillows;
the room well appointed. Here, as in the rest of the house, there is plenty of neat art and things to look
at on the walls. The view from the room is terrific. As there are no mosquitoes in Jerome (I guess one of the
few places in the world!), we slept with the screenless windows open for the pleasant valley breezes to waft
in from far below. If you have forgotten any toiletries, the bathroom closet is filled with every possible
need...shampoos, shaving cream and razors, Q-tips, lotions; it's just like home. The tap water is good to
drink, coming from the mountain springs.
Outside, the extended gardens were coming to glory this springtime,
flowers beginning to bloom as the valley breeze stirred the stand of black bamboo. Comfortable lawn chairs
are scattered throughout, most with valley views. An upper and lower level fishpond is filled with healthy
looking goldfish of many colors, all of which are named by Andrea. They are quite tame, as Andrea can pick
them up, and they'll come up to the surface to gently "kiss" your fingertips when you put your hand in the
water. It's quite neat.
Jerome can get a little noisy on the weekends, with bikers coming in and bands playing
in the heart of town. The Surgeon's House is close to, yet up above the fray, so you can participate in the
party if you would like, yet walk back and have a restful sleep away from the drumbeats of the late-nighters.
Our stay at Andrea's was an absolute delight, and I hope to have the opportunity to visit her again. She knows
what she is about, and she runs her place as a B & B ought to be run: with attention to her guests wants and
needs with a warm and caring disposition. Meeting people like Ms. Prince is one of the great things about
travel...she has made the Surgeon's House into a true home away from home. If you are to stay in Jerome,
this is the place to check into!
This TripAdvisor Member:
Liked — The ambience is wonderful, and meeting Andrea Prince is a delight.
Disliked — There are no negatives in the Surgeon's House experience.
(From "Fulton County Daily Report", published in Atlanta Georgia)
A TRIP TO ARIZONA can become a geology lesson in a hurry. Hike around the multicolored layers of the Grand Canyon, or drive through the red cliffs outside Sedona, and you’re bound to ask some questions.
But once you have the answers—iron deposits are responsible for the rusty hues around Sedona, and scientists still are exploring how the Colorado River carved the Grand Canyon—the rocks can lose their luster. Something a little more animal, instead of mineral, beckons.
For my wife Deb and me, the little town of Jerome, population 450, satisfied this craving at the end of a recent six-day trip around the state.
Built into the side of a mountain about 20 miles southwest of Sedona, Jerome is the result of a classic boom-to-bust story, with a new chapter being written, painted, sculpted and woven by dozens of local artists.
Native Americans first populated the area, according to the storefront museum of the Jerome Historical Society, which sits on one of the town’s three major streets. From 1870 until 1875, about 6,000 Yavapai lived on a reservation there. But then the U.S government took the land back, and the Yavapai fell to about 1,000.
Speculators came, and by the 1920s, copper mining had drawn 15,000 residents to Jerome. Along with a darkened corner that shows what the inside of a mine looked like, the museum has a colorful and informative exhibit about a side industry that thrived as well, called “The World’s Oldest Profession.”
Several Jerome establishments revel in the town’s infamous flesh trade, such as Belgian Jennie’s Bordello Bistro & Pizzeria, which advertises “the best piece in town.” But the museum takes a largely sober look at the business, using court records and a model of a prostitute’s boudoir to tell the story. Among other things, it explained the different tiers of the business, descending from parlor houses to brothels to “cribs,” where women served 20 to 30 men a night and suffered the worst health problems.
When the copper mine closed in 1953, barely 50 residents remained, and Jerome soon earned the moniker of “ghost town.” The museum credits hippies for Jerome’s rebirth in the 1960s, but artists appear to be leading the way today—making up about half of the town’s 450 residents.
One of the first to set up shop was David Hall, who opened Made in Jerome Pottery in 1972.
Hall said he became familiar with Jerome on family trips between California and the Midwest. After going to college in Flagstaff, he moved to Jerome to set up his pottery store.
“It’s a very unique place,” said Hall, who digs up local clay for his pieces.
One of the newest residents is painter Joe Christopher, who found post-Katrina New Orleans too hard on his business to stay. Shopping for a new location, Christopher passed on Taos, N.M., and said he found Sedona “too commercial.”
“This town,” he said, “is funky enough to be fun.”
He displays his work, amusing folksy paintings that include a wedding scene from New Orleans’ Jackson Square, at his gallery, Lola.
Jerome’s galleries feature a wide range of work—from sophisticated stained glass to metal structures made from used farm equipment. Some of the pieces we found interesting at the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery were wood carvings, glass mosaics, batik (made from hot wax on fabric) and something called “polymer transfers on anodized titanium.”
Deb and I stayed in a bed-and-breakfast called the Surgeon’s House, which was the home of the town doctor in the mining days.
Our room, which cost $145 a night, featured a firm king-size bed, a private bathroom and a view that took full advantage of Jerome’s mile-high perch above the Verde Valley. The red rocks near Sedona and the San Francisco peaks near Flagstaff, 60 miles away, highlighted this commanding view.
The owner of the Surgeon’s House is the irrepressible Andrea Prince, whose art comes in the form of hearty breakfasts she serves at 8:30 each morning. During our stay, the offerings included poached salmon with Prince’s experimental wasabi mustard, homemade scones, bananas and strawberries with yogurt, egg and mozzarella bread pudding, asparagus, and portobello mushrooms, which she called “fake steak.”
One afternoon I spent a couple of hours in the Surgeon’s House garden, lying on a chaise lounge reading, napping and inhaling the honeysuckle that surrounds it.
Prince made my day when she informed us, as we arrived in sweaty T-shirts and shorts after hiking in Sedona, that we were impeccably dressed for Jerome’s best restaurants.
The first night we walked down the hill to Grapes on Main Street, where I enjoyed an Angus burger drizzled with red zinfandel wine on a sourdough bun; the menu suggested pairing it with a 2005 Gnarly Head zinfandel. Delicious.
The next night we walked up the hill to The Asylum, the restaurant in the Jerome Grand Hotel, once the town hospital that has an even better view than the Surgeon’s House. The highlight was an appetizer tasting of four wines—two whites and two reds—that we combined with four different cheeses.
Our favorite was not the California sauvignon blanc, the white Bordeaux or the Chilean cabernet, but a red wine from Page Springs Cellars in nearby Cornville. Since I am not a wine expert, I’ll simply agree with what the menu said: The 2005 Vino de la Familia displayed “a remarkable synergy” of petite syrah, syrah, cabernet pfeffer and viognier.
If you are looking for something different after sharing amazing views with crowds at the Grand Canyon and Sedona, Jerome is a worthy option.
Managing Editor Jonathan Ringel can be reached at jringel@alm.com.
(From Arizona Woman, published in Phoenix, Arizona, May 2007>
By Nancy Clark
Sparkly crystals and funky, historic knick-knacks fill Andrea Prince's home, also known as the Surgeon's House Bed and Breakfast in Jerome.
The faint aromas of incense and sage remind you that you're in a place where everything from spirituality to art is celebrated a bit differently. The lush gardens, the dining room and the north-facing guest rooms are graced with a sweeping view of the Verde Valley, where the lights of the cities below twinkle at night and the red rocks of Sedona can be seen by day. The historic house oozes charm.
This is what makes Jerome a popular place for people looking for something more authentic than what you'd get on a typical touristy day trip.
"We aren't all just shops and tourists," Prince says. "There is also a dimension of Jerome that is simply magical. It offers a change in topography, geography, altitude, attitude, everything . . . Being here overnight lets you feel like you are actually looking down at the 'other' world and that this one is the 'real' world, even if just for an overnight or weekend."
That sense of escape is what keeps Prince's bed-and -breakfast filled nearly year-round. Well, that and her gourmet breakfasts of creative food and beverage combinations.
"We make a big deal out of breakfast because I think everything ought to be celebratory when you take the time and energy to take a much=deserved time-out to your daily life," says Prince, who likes to chat with her guests.
"My home is a grand old lady with a personality all of her own. She chose me, and I am grateful. I intend that my guests truly know they are in a home that welcomes them to be themselves and to relax and be waited on and catered to. My gardens are serene and inviting and evolving. The have a life of their own as well."
