In 1935 the store across Gurley Street from the Plaza listed these departments: dry goods, furniture, gents furnishings, hardware, meat, retail grocery, shoe and wholesale. Locals called it the "B & B." A Sharlot Hall Museum Days Past column calls the Bashford Burmister "Prescott's only true department store," and says it sat in the three-story building known today as Bashford Court.
Ninety-one years later the building is sorted by department again, this time for dinner. The Copper Note serves fine dining on the top floor. Modern Agave runs a Latin-inspired grill in its main dining room, and the Agave Loft above it pours pisco sours and serves tapas. One couple, Michele and Stephen Sullins, owns both restaurants. Taken together, the address works the way the B & B did. You pick a floor based on what you need that night.
The store that set the pattern
A history of Arizona published in 1896, reprinted on the Bashford Courts history page, gives the business's start as 1864 under L. Bashford. Robert H. Burmister bought an interest in May 1874. The same account describes a three-story brick building with a basement and calls it "the largest store in the Territory," with fifteen clerks, five warehouses and a lumber yard. The founding dates vary by source. The Days Past column says William Bashford and Robert Burmister opened their general merchandise store in the fall of 1872.
That first building did not survive. The July 14, 1900 fire destroyed it, and the store came back wider than before. The City of Prescott's preservation history says the fire took four and a half downtown blocks, and that more permanent buildings replaced the old wooden ones. The city's Courthouse Plaza preservation plan shows the pre-fire Bashford-Burmister building next to the one built after the fire, captioned as the building that "Still Stands Today."
The Days Past column says the grocery department took up the ground floor, in the space Stolts later occupied for many years. The meat department shared that floor and had a walk-in refrigerator. The grocery shelves carried pricier canned goods, crackers, cookies and candy. Days Past puts the department store's closing at 1940.
People often confuse two Bashford landmarks. The Bashford family home stood beside the Burmister home on East Gurley Street. It was later moved to the grounds of Sharlot Hall Museum, where it holds the Museum Store. The building on the Plaza is the store.
A second life that kept the building in use
The city's preservation plan cites Bashford Courts at 130 West Gurley Street as one of two notable examples of historic Plaza buildings "renovated and used for original or compatible purposes." The other is the Balentine Building at 102-104 North Montezuma. Retail filled the building again. Its shop directory lists tenants including Plenty Imports, Mully's Celtic Cottage, Diamond D Ranchwear, TimberWoof Pet Boutique, Homebody, Manifested Art and Relaxing Foot Spa.
Until recently the building had no restaurant to match its upper floors. That changed in October 2025.
The top floor came first
The Copper Note was scheduled to open Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, according to the Prescott Daily Courier. That puts the restaurant just past its first year as this post goes up.
Arizona Highways described the room as "an airy, light-filled space on the top floor of the historic Burmister Building," and reported that the Sullinses chose it on sight. "This space speaks of an upscale fine dining room," Michele Sullins told the magazine. The name refers to Arizona's copper industry and to the "notes" of food, wine and spirits. The owners ran Sound Bites Grill in Sedona until they sold it in 2021.
The magazine singled out three dishes. One is a New England clam chowder topped with shrimp and Southwestern corn relish. Another is the Voodoo Pasta, rigatoni with house-made Italian sausage and chicken in Alfredo and marinara. The third is a seared ahi poke served over quinoa basmati pilaf. Arizona Highways also wrote that the restaurant serves weekend brunch with a jazz trio on Sundays. If brunch is the plan, call first and confirm it's still on.
Then the floors below
Modern Agave opened in mid-June 2026. A Prescott NOW feature submitted by the restaurant calls it the sister restaurant to The Copper Note. The same piece lists early favorites: calamari, ropa vieja, empanadas, flat iron steak with chimichurri, and flan. The bar pours pisco sours, a frothy Peruvian cocktail, along with sangria.
The Agave Loft sits above the main dining room. It has its own bar and tapas menu and doubles as an event space for larger groups. The restaurant's group inquiries page currently lists holiday parties for families and businesses among the events it books.
So the two kitchens give the building three distinct rooms.
| Room | Where it sits | What it's built for |
|---|---|---|
| The Copper Note | Top floor, overlooking Courthouse Square | Scratch-made, cooked-to-order fine dining; Arizona Highways reported weekend brunch |
| Modern Agave | Main dining room | Latin-inspired grill, kid-friendly menu, lunch through dinner |
| Agave Loft | Above Modern Agave's main room | Bar, tapas, and private events for larger groups |
The addresses can be confusing. Modern Agave lists 130 W. Gurley St., which is the Bashford Courts address in the city's preservation plan. Arizona Highways lists The Copper Note at 120 W. Gurley Street. On foot, both are in the old store across from the Plaza.
What the next few weeks hold
A building that used to stock a full Thanksgiving pantry now cooks Thanksgiving dinner. Here's the November calendar.
- Thursday, Nov. 12, 6 to 7 p.m. The Prescott Chamber of Commerce lists a joint ribbon cutting for The Copper Note and Modern Agave at 120 W. Gurley St. The listing's description still shows an earlier September date, so confirm with the Chamber's event page before you go.
- Thursday, Nov. 26, Thanksgiving. Modern Agave posted a set menu. It starts with a choice of roasted butternut squash bisque or an autumn ensalada. The entrées are herb-roasted turkey with sage stuffing, roasted prime rib au jus, or maple-chipotle glazed salmon over sweet potato purée. Dessert is a choice of bourbon pecan pie, pumpkin tres leches or churro bread pudding. Reservations go through 928-800-3472. Upstairs, The Copper Note's site advertises its own Thanksgiving feast.
- Holiday parties. The Agave Loft is taking bookings for family and business holiday gatherings through the group inquiry form.
For an ordinary weeknight, Modern Agave's July announcement listed it as open seven days a week starting at 11 a.m. Call ahead to confirm the evening closing time. The Copper Note is a dinner room, so check its site for the day's hours before you head upstairs.
Why the stacking matters on the Plaza
The B & B could keep a family in hardware, shoes and groceries without anyone leaving the building. The Sullinses have done something similar for an evening out. You can have a pisco sour and empanadas in the loft, sit down to dinner in the main room or on the top floor, and walk out onto Gurley Street with the Courthouse lit up across the way. Arizona Highways reported that The Copper Note's dining room looks out on Courthouse Square, which is the same view the store's upper floors had before there was a restaurant up there.
The building's ground-floor shops still trade the way they did after the renovation the city counts among the Plaza's preservation successes. If you're doing Thanksgiving errands, you can pick up a gift at Plenty Imports or a collar at TimberWoof Pet Boutique, then reach dinner by the stairs without walking another block.
Homes near the Plaza come with stories like this one, and we tell them carefully when it's time to sell. If you own a historic Prescott property and want to know how its history adds to its value, Luxury Prescott can start with a free home valuation built around what makes your address distinct.
