St. George Historical Walking Tour

Walking Tour

Providing the courthouse was open and you’ve finished your visit, you can leave your car parked there and go on the walking tours. They are each 1-to-2-hours in length and are about a mile in length, all on sidewalks. The tour routes cover the two city blocks west of the courthouse (100 East to 100 West), and the two city blocks north of St. George Blvd along Main Street. A brochure is available.

Many of the buildings in the downtown area have small plaques out front describing their history. Even if you don’t watch the video or get walking directions from the courthouse, you can still roam around the downtown area and look for these plaques for a description of the building.

Commercial Buildings

Walking out of the Pioneer Courthouse parking lot, turn left (north) and begin climbing 100 East. The first building on the left is the Pioneer Museum. Turn left at the next street, 200 North.

Opera House

At the end of the block, before reaching Main Street, the St. George Art Museum and Opera House are seen on the left. The Opera House is the historic building, being built in 1875. Look for the year near the roof. It sat 300 people and served the community until the 1930s.

Mercantile Building

Turn left onto Main Street and head downhill towards the traffic light. Cross both Main Street and St. George Blvd. to walk south on the right side of Main Street.

The first building on the corner of Main and the Blvd is a new hotel built in 2019. The next building is historic and is currently occupied by the Bear Paw Café. This was originally the St. George Co-Op Mercantile Building that was built in 1876.

Bishop’s Storehouse

At 17 North Main, the Bishop’s Storehouse was built in 1887 to receive and store the offerings of LDS Church members that were to be distributed to the widows, the poor and the needy in town. It is currently a real estate office.

Thomas Judd’s General Store

At the end of the block, turn right onto Tabernacle Street. Across the street is the Tabernacle. We’ll talk more about this later.

We’ll walk a little further and, on the right, we pass by St. George’s oldest on-going business, Thomas Judd’s General Store. It was built around the 1890s. In 1911, the store was purchased by the Judd family. Today it serves as a candy and ice cream store.

Green Gate Village

Continuing west on Tabernacle Street, Green Gate Village is passed on the right, which is a collection of commercial buildings now, but originally were a lot of residences. There are about ten buildings located here.

Woodward School

At the end of the block, turn left and cross Tabernacle Street. Here, we enter the St. George town square. On the left is the Woodward School. The early settlers here put a high value on education and built this school in 1898. Today, it serves as administrative offices for the Washington County school district, and has some historical artifacts on display, inside.

Tabernacle

Walk across the park and begin heading to the left, back towards Main Street. A good view of the Tabernacle will be seen on the left.

The Tabernacle took 13 years to build and was completed in 1876. Its purpose is to hold community gatherings and provide a place of worship. With construction of the St. George Temple being complete the following year, and the Pioneer Courthouse already complete in 1870, by the late 1870s, the budding town of St. George was really starting to take shape, as you can see in this historic picture from about the turn of the century.

Dixie Academy Building

When you reach the sidewalk of Main Street, turn right. Soon, the St. George Children’s Museum is reached on the right.

This is the Dixie Academy Building. It was built in 1911. This was basically the beginnings of Dixie State University or DSU, which is now known as Utah Tech. Today, the university is located about a mile east of here and this building now serves as the St. George Children’s Museum. 

Dixie Photo Shop

After looking at the Dixie Academy Building, turn around (180 degrees) and head back north up Main Street. When you reach Tabernacle Street, turn right crossing Main Street.

The first building of interest is the Dixie Photo Shop. This fine two story building became a business in the early 1920’s. It was built along the Arrowhead Trail, that would later become US highway 91, which was later moved a block north onto St. George Blvd a few years later, then replaced by Interstate 15 in the 1970s.  Many important services were carried out at this building that really enhanced the lives of those who lived in St. George.

Electric Theater

The next building of interest down the street is the Electric Theater. It was built in 1911 and has 220 seats. Ownership changed hands several times over the last 110 years. It stopped showing movies in 1999. In 2013, the City of St. George purchased the Electric Theater and uses it for various activities, including plays, concerts and presentations.

At the end of the block, just past the Electric Theater, is another interesting historic commercial building. The date of the original structure is unknown, but it was owned and operated as the Nelson Mercantile until 1924. It changed hands and appearance a few times, then was restored to its original appearance in 1992.

County News Building – Return to Pioneer Courthouse

Head back to Main Street and turn right to head back up to St. George Blvd. Cross the Blvd. and turn right (east) towards the Pioneer Courthouse. There’s one more historic building to look at.

Most of the commercial buildings in this block were build in the 1960s. One building however was built as a saloon in the 1880s in the nearby mining town of Silver Reef. After the silver boom ended around 1890, it was moved here and became the County News Building. The Washington County News was printed here until around 1900. After that, this building housed several other businesses.

The building is difficult to spot while walking past the more modern movies. Refer to the Commercial Building Walking Tour video.

Residences

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