Distinctly Montana Magazine

H eritage Department Laura's final resting place in Forestvale Cemetery Hauntings: Ad for Laura's canaries, 1927 In all seasons, birds flock to the trees at Reeder's Alley. article and photos By Ellen Baumler H istoric Reeder's Alley in Helena traces its roots to the dwindling gold rush, when Louis Reeder, a brick mason from Pennsylvania, built the tiny multi-level flats between 1873 and 1884. They were mostly home to single men, miners at first and when they moved on, others called the alley home. By the 1920s, Laura Duchesnay was one of the alley's few female residents. Her husband George owned the stone house at the top of the alley. The French-born Duchesnays occupied the front apartment and rented the building's other three. Neighborhood children were in awe of Laura. She had gentle ways with wild birds and knew how to heal their broken wings. Laura also raised canaries by the hundreds, filling her small apartment with tiny songbirds. In February of 1933, Laura died after a short illness. George brought her home to Reeder's Alley. Neighbors crowded into the small apartment to say goodbye and Laura's canaries sang sweetly. After that, George managed his apartments until he died in 1940. Memories of Laura and her songbirds faded. By the 1950s, Reeder's Alley was in bad shape. Three dynamic Helena women—Eileen Harper, Jane Tobin, and Pat Boedecker—purchased the stone house at the top of the alley where Laura had raised her canaries. The three women dreamed of creating an artists' colony where art and history would intertwine. They began renovations in February 1961, unaware that Laura's canaries once sang sweetly in the front apartment, and that February marked the anniversary of Laura's death. The women removed walls, cleared away layers of refuse, and opened a lunchroom. They eventually acquired the alley's other buildings and transformed the derelict tenements into shops and galleries. The alley changed hands in 1973 and the stone house eventually became the Stonehouse Restaurant. Under various owners it was one of Helena's most popular longtime eateries. In the 1990s, I discovered an unpublished article about Reeder's Alley. In it, writer Dick Pace mentioned a local bird doctor who once lived Ellen Baumler talks about Reeder's Alley DISTINCTL MONTANA | DIGITAL Y 66 www.distinctlymontana.com/ellen134 D I ST I N CT LY M ONTANA • FALL 2013

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