The area 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.

By 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.

For all 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.