HELENA — Historic Helena Walking Tours are coming back this summer to provide an interactive history of the Capital City.
The walking tours are a great way to get to know your city in a more interactive way. And each month a new part of the city is explored. In June the tour focuses on the South Central neighborhood, the mansion district in July, and in August, the downtown walking mall area.
Pam Attardo, Heritage Preservation officer for the city and county, and volunteer tour guide says that these tours can bring history to life.
“You know, you can read a book and look at a photograph but being in front of it is, it makes it much different. And a lot of times your tour guide knows things that they've learned for years, and it just makes it all the more interesting. And you can see details and you can touch it if you want to. Yeah, it's, it comes alive,” says Attardo.
While looking around the downtown walking mall with Attardo, she shared some pretty cool facts about our downtown area, a sampling of what tour-goers can expect this summer.
For example, the salamander statues on top of the Atlas building were put there by the Atlas Fire Insurance Company.
“According to myth, salamanders could burn in a fire and survive. And so, it's basically an advertisement for, you know, we insure your building and it won't burn just like these salamanders,” says Attardo.
Or how, what is now the oldest building in downtown Helena, survived Helena’s worst fire.
“It survived a disastrous fire in 1874 that stopped just a few doors short of it and it survived. But it was so bad that, you know, people almost didn't rebuild. Yeah, it was Helena’s worst fire,” says Attardo.
And even how Helena’s brothel run by Big Dorothy was eventually shut down in 1973.
“Dorothy applied for urban renewal funds during that Model Cities Program. And so, the federal government, you know, interviewed and said who works there. And she said independent contractors. And that's how they figured out that she was running a brothel, when they investigated. And so, they closed her down,” says Attardo.
Information like this will be available this summer on the tours. The tours begin in June and are $5 for adults and free for kids. No reservations are required.
