This 90-minute, ADA-accessible tour leaves from the front of The Wilma and covers about 5 city blocks.  If you're worried about parking, the Missoula Villages network can help coordinate ride shares.

We've partnered with the Downtown Missoula Partnership to offer one of their special Unseen Missoula walking tours at no cost for Village members and (space allowing) folks who are still checking out the Village network. Thank you to the DMP for generously supporting this event! After the tour, anyone who's interested can walk over with us for a treat on the Village at Sweet Peaks Ice Cream shop.

While many in Missoula may be familiar with the name Mary Gleim or the brief history of Front Street, many of the district’s stories remain untold, including Gleim’s and her businesses. Since its existence along the historic Mullan Road, Front Street has been known as Missoula’s ‘red light district,’ a place of vice, sin, and corruption, due to the influence of the radical reformist religious movements of the late 19th century. However, violence and addiction that were pervasive throughout the entirety of the American West comprise only a sliver of the true story. 

From 1889 to 1917, West Front and Main Streets became home to a vibrant ‘restricted’ community of working women, Chinese laborers, African American soldiers, and immigrants who built the environment we as Missoulians have come to love today. This tour discusses the district through the historical lenses of sex, race, class, and occupation in order to create a broader social understanding against the backdrop of the remaining built environment.