Pub crawl, free prizes and cool history . . . need I say more?
If you are a fan of history, as I am, enjoy a cold microbrew and good food at unique restaurants, as I do, then maybe you, too, will want to join one of the most interesting promotions of historic preservation I’ve stumbled upon.
It’s the Historic Buildings Restaurant & Pub Crawl sponsored by the Colorado Springs Historic Preservation Board.
The event is going on all May as part of the celebration of National Preservation Month.
If you don’t care to eat and drink your history lessons, there are other events that will immerse you in the area’s rich history.
This link takes you to a cool then-and-now slide show.
In fact, on Thursday night a tour is scheduled of the old chapel at Evergreen Cemetery with director Will DeBoer.
It will start at 7:30 p.m. at the cemetery, 1005 S. Hancock Expressway, and will include lots of anecdotes and fun facts.
Participants should park outside the cemetery gates, walk to the chapel and bring a sweater and a flashlight.
Next Thursday, May 24, the Pioneers Museum will offer a behind-the-scenes tour, starting at 6 p.m. Museum director Matt Mayberry will lead the after-hours look at the old El Paso County Courthouse, 215 S. Tejon St. Space is limited, so RSVP with an email to Preservation Board staffer Erin McCauley, emccauley@springsgov.com. (The tour may include a trip to the bell tower!)
And at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 27, author Jennifer Wendler Lovell will lead a 1.5-mile walking tour of Wood Avenue. Participants will be able to buy the book she co-wrote: “Exploring the Old North End Neighborhood of Colorado Springs: A Guide to its History and Architecture.”
Those all sound great but I’m most interested in the pub crawl.
The board has compiled a list of 10 restaurant/pubs that occupy historic buildings, mostly downtown, in a pamphlet available on my blog and the city’s website.
On the right is the cover of the brochure:
The restaurants and their buildings are listed with brief descriptions. Visit six of the 10 in May, get a stamp on a postcard, mail it in and be entered to win free stuff!
Mayberry noted the irony of the historic pub crawl.
“If you were to look back at each of the deeds on those properties, you’d find deed restrictions attached prohibiting the sale and distribution of alcohol,” he said, noting Colorado Springs founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer wanted his resort town to be different.
“He didn’t want it become just a typical Western town,” Mayberry said.
If Palmer could see downtown any Friday night, he’d fall off his horse.
“It’s one of the tidbits that makes Colorado Springs unique,” Mayberry said. “Little things you get from historic preservation make the place you live more interesting.”
Here are the inside pages of the brochure and the postcard:
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