Small flecks of primer fell from the sky last week as Rob Domier, armed with a 40-foot ladder and a spray gun, prepared the rusting tin eaves on a building on Rodney Street for a welcome new look.

All along a two-block stretch of this uptown street, a splash of paint has turned commercial properties into a palatable pinwheel of color -- taupe, terra cotta, cyber space, salmon and Rockwood shutter green, to name a few.

The tunnel of color is an avant-garde effort by property owners to revitalize the area, dubbed the "Rodney Street Ghetto" by a band of skateboarders.

Tami O'Brien, co-owner of Montana Marketing, acknowledged the neighborhood's downtrodden reputation with a laugh. She and her husband, Wayne, own several commercial and residential properties along Rodney Street. If they have their way, the skateboarders may need to find a new moniker to describe the district.

"It's definitely changing," O'Brien said. "It's improving all the time, and the value of real estate keeps increasing."

O'Brien and her husband were first drawn to the district by its history when they purchased their own home on Rodney Street. Jewish merchants settled here in the 1870s, and by 1889 the street was described as "the longest, broadest, and handsomest thoroughfare in Helena."

O'Brien, along with several other property owners, helped inspire the neighborhood's recent rebirth, bringing the area back from the brink of urban decay. Among other projects, the couple renovated one of Rodney Street's larger apartments, formerly referred to as the "crack house" by the locals.

"The police had a call to that place at least once a week," O'Brien said. "We painted it and put in a lawn. We've weeded out the bad eggs."

Their effort to revitalize the neighborhood remains on the up and up. More recently, the couple purchased a two-story building at 203 N. Rodney -- the future home of their embroidery business.

It was here, just last week, that Domier, of Domier Painting, gave the building its dapper new look, applying the taupe finish and dressing the trim with cyber space blue. It's among the latest buildings to get a needed makeover.

Across the street, Bob Jester has dropped $20,000 into his own two-story building, nearly doubling the size of his namesake bar. Inside, painters applied a new coat of "Sweet William" paint, which appears as a cross between blue and deep purple, depending on the light.

Starting this week, Jester and Roger Jetmore plan to tackle the building's exterior. This, Jester grinned, will be the first time the building has been painted in 23 years.

"It's been in my family since 1939," he said. "I've got 12 years in as a third-generation owner."

Jester and Jetmore spent most of last week prepping the outside walls. On a napkin sketch, he explained the newfangled color scheme, which included plum brown siding and Rockwood shutter-green trim.

"We got a really good deal on the paint," Jester said. "It makes it where you can afford to do projects like this."

As early as 1866, Rodney Street supported a variety of businesses, including grocery stores and hotels. Built above Last Chance Gulch, the uptown district was safe from the fires that often ravaged the city below.

That's not to say that fire has been absent from the Rodney Street district. In 2000, fire broke out on the second floor of the Quality B&B Market. The damage to the historic building was enough to temporarily close the business and displace the second-floor tenants.

Charlie Carson, the property's owner, has nursed the building to a full recovery. A new roof and a snazzy paint scheme -- rainstorm blue and Starbucks brown, he said -- give the property newfound prominence on the corner of Rodney and Breckenridge.

"The neighborhood is changing -- it's in transition," Carson said. "Our little street is going to look great. It's probably the first time in 100 years it'll look this good."

Carson credited Denis and Carol Ogle for sparking the district's makeover. The couple purchased the Weinstein Block at 101 N. Rodney Street several years ago for $55,000.

At the time of their purchase, the two-story structure had stood empty for nearly 25 years and was far removed from its early history. Built in 1880, the building housed the Weinstein Grocery Store and Pacific Tea Co. The Weinstein brothers were typical of the area's Jewish merchants, who were vital to the city's early economy.

While it would have been cheaper to tear the Weinstein building down, the Ogles didn't. Instead, they rebuilt it from the inside out, completing a large and costly restoration. The Weinstein building now stands as one of the most attractive commercial buildings on Rodney Street, complete with vintage charm.

Alan Bock of Brokers First Real Estate in Helena had followed the building's renovation. At one time, he said, the structure was as poor as any commercial building on Rodney Street. While many contractors had shown interest in it, he said, they felt it was too far gone to save.

"The Ogles have done a lot for that neighborhood," Bock said. "I think they had the vision for that little block. It's looking better up there. It's picking up pretty well."

Bock said the real estate market in the South Central neighborhood, loosely bordered by Last Chance Gulch and Montana Avenue, has responded well to the commercial improvements. In Sept. 2002, the average residential sale stood at $102,811. Just two years later, as of this August, it had climbed to $112,325.

"The market in the whole South Central area is on fire right now," Bock said. "The work on Rodney Street has an impact. We do a lot of business in that area."

Carson had a paper route as a boy on Rodney Street and has watched the area change through the years. He said the district still offers the same businesses it always has; they've just changed buildings. A bar, a sandwich shop, a laundromat, a small convenience store and a pawn shop currently round out the most visible enterprises.

"The neighborhood is always going to have its lower-income people, just because of the apartments around there," Carson said. "That's not going to change unless those buildings go away. But they're all nice and friendly people."

Carson believes that sprucing up the commercial properties could help revitalize the area. Residential landlords, he said, just have to follow suit.

"Talking to the other property owners, we felt that we had to get something done or it was going to get a lot worse," he said.

The work, he added, was done without the aid of the downtown Business Improvement District.

As for O'Brien, she and her husband plan to move the embroidery portion of their marketing business into the ground floor of their new Rodney Street building this year. The top floor, she said, will serve as a spacious apartment, welcoming yet another resident to Rodney.

"I love the 'Ghetto,' " O'Brien laughed. "I love its history, and I love that it's conveniently located to downtown."

Reporter Martin Kidston can be reached at 447-4086, or at mkidston@helenair.com.