9 Downtown Boise Buildings With Fascinating Pasts That May Surprise You

Raise your hand if you've spent a night or two club hopping around 6th and Main in Downtown Boise. Seeing your personal history in Facebook memories from those nights may make you laugh (or cringe,) but how much do you know about the history of the buildings themselves?

We're suckers for old buildings and went down a rabbit hole looking at the Idaho State Historical Society's map of Idaho buildings that are recognized as part of the National Register of Historic Places. It was sad to see how many cool buildings on the map have been demolished. At the same time, it was absolutely fascinating reading through the nomination form for some of the buildings that we've spent a lot of time in.

Get our free mobile app

It's easy to go down a rabbit hole after clicking on your first nomination form. The rabbit hole we fell down was looking at some of the buildings that are home to the nightclubs we spent where way too many evenings that we don't remember with people we'll never forget.

We were absolutely fascinated by what some of these places used to be. Some of them will really surprise you. Others of them might make you go "oh, well that explains the outside of the building!" Step into our time machine and see if you have the same reaction that we did!