The Beaumont Heritage Society is hosting “Styles, Scamps, and Scandals,” a guided walking tour through downtown Beaumont, every Friday and Saturday through the end of October.
The tours last approximately 50 minutes and cover historical downtown buildings and the stories behind them.
“I actually love taking historic tours when I’m a tourist in other places,” executive director Shelby Brannan said. “So, the tours are modeled after some walking tours I’ve taken.”
The tours will feature the history of Beaumont and highlight notable figures, tour guide and historian Katherine Leister said.
“It’s not so much a cut-and-dry history of Beaumont from beginning to finish,” Leister said. “It’s more of a highlight of the more entertaining and colorful aspects of Beaumont history.”
The balance of history and scandals means the tours have something for everybody, Brannan said.
“It’s not just about the buildings,” Brannan said. “It’s about the people who lived in them, and it’s about the people who worked in them. It’s about the people that built them. So yes, (buildings) on their own, in their architectural styles, have a story to tell. But it’s also about our community, and that’s what makes preservation so important, and that’s why the power of place is so important.”
Through history, one gets to understand how cities came to be, Leister said.
“Whenever I was younger and growing up in Beaumont, I really thought Beaumont was just the most boring place,” Leister said. “But when I learned more about the kind of people who lived here, what they’ve been able to accomplish, what they’ve done, those inspiring stories — I think when you learn the history of what Beaumont was, it helps us trace the path for what is possible in the future.”
Brannan said the Heritage Society aims to help people to absorb the history of Beaumont.
“Our mission is always to educate and engage,” she said. “We want to engage you in the history that we have downtown. We want you to engage with the material, and we want you to imagine what could be possible if we all worked together to turn downtown back into the destination that it could be.”
The tour will offer an inside look at a Beaumont many residents may not know, Leister said.
“It was just about showcasing some of the more colorful aspects of Beaumont history and also some lesser-known stories,” she said. “For instance, the Beaumont race riot in 1943, a lot of people are kind of familiar with it, but it was something that I never really knew about it until just a couple years ago, when I really started diving deep into Beaumont history.”
The buildings are chronicles of the city’s history and must be protected so the city can build on its past, Brannan said.
“Preservation and heritage tourism is such an incredible driver of economic development,” she said. “I would love people to come down and imagine the possibilities of what can be done if we all set our mind to preserving these spaces.”
The tours were created with locals and tourists in mind.
“We are lucky that now this is a tourist initiative, too,” Brannan said. “We are attempting to be an economic driver. We want people from out of town coming to downtown Beaumont for this.”
The theme “Styles, Scamps, and Scandals,” draws inspiration from the people who contributed to Beaumont’s rich history.
“One of the people who was largely responsible for putting Beaumont on the map is Pattillo Higgins,” she said. “We do feature him in the beginning of our tour, and he was quite the character himself. We had some really particular things about him; you’ll have to come on the tour to hear.”
Not everyone is aware of what surrounds them, and the tour seeks to clarify that, Leister said.
“I mean, downtown is such an interesting place today,” she said. “People like going down there, but it’s really hard to imagine the history of it, because there’s just so little guidance for what you’re looking at when you’re down there.”
Brannan said the tour is perfect for anybody who’s ever been curious about where they live.
“I would say, if you don’t think this tour is for you, challenge yourself,” she said.
Tours begin at 5 p.m. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased at beaumontheritage.ludus. com.