(Havre) – On Friday October 6th, The Havre Historical Underground is holding a fundraiser to fund the repairs of the vaulted sidewalk above a section of the historic underground. Christy Owens the office manager for Havre Beneath the Streets talks about the event.
“The Historical Underground Fundraiser happening October 6th that’s going to be held at the Havre Eagles Club it $35 on host, its 6 and then 6:30. and then the Fundraiser event we’re going to be having a few things happening we have silent auction, live auction, 50/50, some basket raffles, you know miscellaneous games. Just kind of a whole lot of fun, a fun evening, and were raising funds to go towards our sidewalk project that we’ve been working on the last few years here.”
She also talks about what repairs need to be made.
“Havre Beneath the Streets has the 2nd Avenue sidewalk, which is vaulted, it’s in front of the eagles club itself and you may notice that it’s blocked over there in front of the eagles club. In 32017 we discovered that it was starting to deteriorate and at that time we had made the decision to move out of that area and not take the public through that area. This project will give us the ability to get that sidewalk re-vaulted and then be able to move back into that area featuring the historical tour. We also have our handicap access is on that side as well so currently we’re unable to use that so that’s something we’re going to be looking forward to do as well.”
She goes on by talking about the historic underground.
“So, the historical underground is actually geared around the 1880’s to the 1930’s. We take people down there and give them the history behind it and how it got started there’s kind of a number of things that fall into what is down there and one of the main reasons was a fire in 1904 that brought a lot of places down there but some of it happened before the fire so there was some legitimate business down there maybe not so much legitimate, illegitimate. So, you know we just, we take folks down there and share the history of the spaces that were there or that were within the surrounding area within Havre and giving everyone the history behind it all.”
She finishes by talking about why it’s important to preserve the underground area.
“You know over all Havre’s history you know were saving that. You know that section could ultimately, we lose it fill it in and you put a sidewalk over the top of it and we wouldn’t be able to access that area you know and actually getting the feel or the sense of what it was like to be in the underground. So, we want to recaptivate that, and we have those displays that we’ve moved out of the areas, and we still talk about them but is just not the same when you get the visual and feeling of being in that area, so we want to bring that back to our tourists.”
