Festival honoring once-forgotten historic neighborhood reminds community of its roots
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POCATELLO – An event that celebrates and preserves the once-forgotten history of a historic neighborhood will take place Saturday.
The Lasting Legacy Festival, an annual event organized jointly by Neighborworks Pocatello and the Bonneville Neighborhood Association which honor’s Pocatello’s Historic Triangle Neighborhood, is scheduled for next Saturday, Sept, 27. The event will take place at Purce Park, located at the corner of North 7th Avenue and East Fremont Street, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“It’s important for us to remember the roots of many families, many who are immigrants who had come to this country, and then eventually settled in Pocatello … because we are here because of what they went through,” said Alfreda Vann, secretary of the Bonneville Neighborhood Association, who spent the first 8 years of her life in the historic neighborhood.
The Historic Triangle Neighborhood, which was bordered by Center Street, South 8th Avenue and the rail yards, began to take shape right around the turn of the 20th century. The neighborhood, the most diverse community in Idaho, was home to many Black, Jewish and Native American people, along with immigrants from Mexico, Greece, the Philippines, China, Japan, Korea and more, according to a document that was on display in the Marshall Public Library’s Black History exhibit from this year.
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While some of the buildings that were a part of the neighborhood are still standing, much of it was cleared out during the 50s and 60s, and much of the original population moved away. This happened for a variety of reasons, including the use of eminent domain that forced them from their homes, or economic advancement that allowed them to seek out new opportunities.
The Lasting Legacy Festival first began because of the late Ken Monroe, Vann said. Monroe, who passed away in March 2024, attended a meeting of the Bonneville Neighborhood Association in February 2021.
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“It would be nice if we could call attention to the lasting legacy monument that’s down there on 3rd, because very few people have knowledge of the triangle neighborhood. It’s forgotten,” Vann recalls Monroe saying. “I think the neighborhood association ought to have a block party, and just draw attention to the monument.”
This led to the first Lasting Legacy Festival being held at the corner of North 3rd Avenue and East Lander Street, right next to the monument, which had been erected around ten years before that.
While they’ve held the celebration at the park in previous years, this will be the first time they’ve held it there with it being known as Purce Park, rather than its old name, Bonneville Community Park. In January, the city formally changed its name, and then had it dedicated in July, in honor of John and Idaho Purce, who both lived in the triangle.
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People who attend the celebration will find a variety of vendor tables promoting community resources, free hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries and a story intake booth where former residents or descendants of residents can share their stories. The first 200 attendees will receive a free Historic Triangle Neighborhood shirt.
Officers from the Pocatello Police Department will cook the hamburgers and hotdogs, and Simplot will provide the french fries.
Vann said that one of the goals of the celebration is to feature community resources, like Aid for Friends and the Pocatello Free Clinic and make it easier for people to find them.
“It is a means by which … residents who are not familiar, can get to know all of these services. … Because a lot of times people work, go to school and that’s it. They don’t interact in the community, or they don’t really know what services are available in the neighborhood,” Vann said.
One of the key components of the celebration is the story sharing booth, which has been present every year. One of the side effects of offering this for former residents, bringing them to the same event, is that it reunites people who haven’t seen each other for years, or possibly decades.
“The first two years, it really was like a community neighborhood reunion, because there are a lot of folks that had not seen one another since high school or even junior high,” Vann said.
But Vann doesn’t expect to see too many more new former triangle residents at the celebration.
“Sadly, we’re all getting older … so many of us are dying,” Vann said. “We have our children or our grandchildren, who may or may not even live here.”
When Vann’s daughter comes to visit, she brings her to the Lasting Legacy monument, “so that she can actually see our name on that monument. Not only my family’s name, but her dad’s family’s name is on the monument, so it gives one that real sense of community.”