You cannot walk far in downtown Flagstaff without crossing the Babbitt name. It is carved into buildings, stamped on old advertisements, woven through every account of how this railroad town grew up. Behind the name were five brothers from Cincinnati who arrived in the 1880s and built a mercantile empire that touched nearly everything Flagstaff ate, wore and drove.
Who were the Babbitt Brothers?
David, George, William, Charles and Edward Babbitt. David and George reached Flagstaff first, in 1886, just four years after the railroad arrived and turned the settlement into a boomtown. The other brothers followed soon after. Accounts say they clerked around town before deciding they could do better working for themselves.
In 1890 they established the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company, a general store that sold everything from groceries to hardware. The store took off. The brothers acquired other stores in the area, moved into real estate, and became some of the largest landowners around Flagstaff. By the early twentieth century, if you needed something in northern Arizona, odds were a Babbitt sold it.
Politics, philanthropy and public life
The Babbitts did not stop at commerce. George Babbitt served in the Arizona Territorial Legislature and became Speaker of the House in 1895. The family gave generously to local causes, including the Northern Arizona Normal School, which grew into Northern Arizona University, and the Flagstaff Hospital. Alongside neighbors like the Riordan brothers, they helped a rowdy lumber-and-rail town settle into something that could last. They are also remembered as outdoorsmen who backed conservation efforts across the region.
What remains of the Babbitt empire today?
Plenty. The original building that housed the Trading Company still stands in downtown Flagstaff, now home to a restaurant and bar, and the company itself has continued in various forms through changes of ownership. By the 1930s, Babbitt Brothers was the store where a Flagstaff family bought nearly everything, and the name never left the streetscape.
The family also left behind a large collection of business records, photographs and personal correspondence. It is housed at the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University and open to researchers and the public, a paper trail running from the town's founding days to the modern city.
Walk this story
The Babbitt blocks sit along the same downtown stretch where Route 66 still works as Flagstaff's main street. Our Route 66 Centennial Walking Tour covers that ground daily at 6 PM, 90 minutes, $35, timed for the Mother Road's 100th birthday in 2026. You will pass the buildings this family raised and hear how a general store became an empire.
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