Pocatello

Isn't it amazing that we seldom take the time to learn and see all of the cool things right in the town we live in? How much do you know about the history of Pocatello? I thought I had been there done that. I quickly learned today how many sites in Pocatello I have never visited and how much interesting history there is about the founding of our town. Today my Leadership Pocatello class met for our Art and History day. We met at the Old Town Pavilion and hopped on a bus to the Performing Arts Center where we enjoyed a behind the scenes tour. What a beautiful facility we have here! Did you know that their daily operating cost is $2,ooo? They have an enormous costume room that was very impressive! I learned about the acoustic technology in the performing hall. This center is the only one in the United States that has the ability to tune the acoustics with 5 different methods. It is cutting edge. I felt guilty for not going to more concerts and symphonies when I realized what a state of the art facility it is. It made me want to expose my children to the arts a little more.

We then went to the Idaho Museum of Natural History at ISU. We got to go to the basement and see where they keep all the things not in the museum displays. We visited the room where they clean and restore fossils and other finds. After the museum we went the the history dept and listened to a professor share the history of Pocatello. I LOVE history and found it very interesting.

From there we went to the Bannock County Historical Museum which is next to the Fort Hall Replica. I have never been there. They had some really interesting exhibits and it is only $1 for adults and $.50 for kids! I will be taking my kids there for sure.
After lunch we met in Old Town for a walking tour of the historical buildings. You can pick up a brochure in the Old Town office that takes you on a self guided walking tour with details about the buildings in Old Town. You can also download the brochure on their website. We only visited a few buildings because we had a very comprehensive indoor tour of several of the buildings. The walking tour does not take you inside the buildings. I am going to do this with the kids as well. Great exercise!

We first toured the Monarch building. This was a strange one. The monarch building is where the Pegasus book store is right after you come up the underpass on your right. This building used to be a brothel. We went upstairs above the store where there are two levels. The middle of the building goes all the way to the ceiling and you can see two stories of rooms around the perimeter of the building. It reminded me of the upstairs scenes in the saloon movies where you see the girls leaning over the balcony railings. Each room is 12X12 and has a window next to the door. When the curtain was up they were open and when it was closed they were busy. Any way there are people actually living there now which was weird because each room only has a sink and they ALL share a bathroom that has an OLD claw foot tub. EW. They say the Madame died in the building and people see her ghost on the stairs. Who knew? The building is over 100 years old. Very interesting, and appropriately so, NOT on the tour.

We then walked to the Whitman Hotel. This building is being totally renovated right now and we are the first people to get an inside look. They are restoring and preserving the historical aspects of the building while turning the first floor into commercial space and then building apartments on the 3 floors above. Can I just say...WOW! The apartments are very nice and what awesome views of downtown. They are scheduled to be rent able at the end of December. Only those with an income range of $15K-$30K will be able to rent them. They let us on the roof where I took some cool pictures.

There are buildings that I have passed before that have tiles on them representing what kind of building they are. There was another building that was a brothel that had stone tiles on the building of a naked woman. You probably would not notice it unless you knew where to look. On a holier note...we walked to the Trinity Episcopal Church that is across the street from Poky High. It is a beautiful building inside and out. It is one of the few churches on the National Historic Building Register. It was built in 1897 and has beautiful stained glass windows.

We walked a few more places and then called it a day. It made me realize how much there is to learn about and see here in our own town if we really stop and take the time to look. We have places here that people travel from around the country to see.