BOULDER - The Bank of Boulder once held the community's money for safekeeping.

Sometime in the near future, it will do the same for the community's history.

Tuesday found a group of volunteers from the Jefferson County Genealogy Library and Heritage Center and an industrious flurry of students cleaning the building.

As clouds of dust rose and settled around her, Ellen Rae Thiel, vice president of the group, shared a little of the building's history and outlined upcoming plans for the building.

The group plans fundraising events Aug. 7 and Aug. 14 to raise money for repairing the center (see events schedule on page 2C).

Built in 1888, the bank later went broke in 1933. During its lifetime, the bank went through three name changes and the building was home to a variety of bustling businesses.

At one time it held the Boulder Age newspaper, and housed Dr. Ira Leighton's practice and also the dental office of Dr. A. R. Robertson. And Montgomery H. Parker had an attorney's office there.

It was later the headquarters for mining engineer Wade V. Lewis, who discovered the radon mine that he would develop as the Free Enterprise Health Mine.

One wall of an upstairs room is covered with a faded aeronautic map. Red lines stretching across it show projected airline flights in the late 1950s to bring visitors to the health mine in Boulder.

Some of these dreams came to fruition.

In 1958 there was a regular flight from Salt Lake City to Boulder.

One day The Heritage Center will be its own draw.

Thiel and fellow volunteers have big plans for its future.

Since the bank was donated by Nancy Alley, one of the members of the genealogy group, in 2004, the group has held a series of fundraisers.

So far, they've put on a new roof and have painted some of the outdoor trim.

New electricity is installed on the lower level.

Once electricity runs throughout the building, then a furnace and plumbing will be added, said Thiel.

A lot of other work remains, as well, from redoing plaster ceilings and walls to repairing and refinishing floors.

"Eventually it will be a visitors' center, a genealogy research center, a local museum, an archives and an art center," Thiel said.

"Almost all of our money was totally donated by local people," she said. "We've had really good support of local people."

Recently, Mary Ellen Earnhardt, director of the 21st Century Community Learning Center program at Boulder Elementary School, secured a grant of $7,000 for a combination project assisting the school program and The Heritage Center.

"We will do three historic tours and our building will be headquarters for the tours," Thiel said.

The students in the 21st CCLC program will learn local history and be the tour guides.

"The students learn about advertising, costs, selling, local history," Thiel said. "It's educational as well as a fun event."

The Heritage Center has also received boxes of courthouse records, dating back to the 1800s, after the courthouse had them microfiched.

"It's a wonderful gift to us," Thiel said.

"A long vision down the road is that we would become a genealogical research library for all of southwest Montana."