south of Broadway that came to be known as "South Main"
was where Helena began. It was there that gold was discovered
in 1864, and where the early town grew up. It may be said that
the area retained much of its frontier character long after
the rest of the city was more or less civilized.
the mid-20th Century, "South Main" had become synonymous
with "Dangerous Underclass", and was generally regarded
as an area to avoid -- unless one wanted good Chinese food,
of course. Then, setting a cautious foot into the neighborhood
to visit the House of Wong or the Yat Son Noodle Parlor seemed
worth the risk.
its risks, real and imagined, the area retained much of Helena's
history within its confines. The 1970s Urban Renewal programs
changed all that, essentially gutting the area. Hundreds of
families were displaced, hundreds of buildings demolished.