The Coos Historical & Maritime Museum will team up with the South Coast Striders on Saturday to host a walk along Front Street in Coos Bay. Walk participants will get a “sneak peek” at facsimiles of a series of plaques that are intended to commemorate the area's history.

Once a busy waterfront street lined with restaurants and retail shops, Front Street was destroyed by a fire in 1928. As a result, the center of town was moved inland, leaving the old thoroughfare all but forgotten by most of the community. With the help of a paid researcher, the Museum has reconstructed historic Front Street on paper, identifying the names and locations of most of the original businesses.

The city of Coos Bay's Historic Design Review Committee has worked with the museum to identify nine businesses of particular significance. Bronze plaques commemorating those sites are being fabricated and will be installed at the end of the month.

“It's amazing to realize how lively Front Street was just 80 years ago,” said Anne Donnelly, the Museum's Executive Director, “and easy to imagine it becoming that popular again. It's one of the few places where people can enjoy the waterfront without being right on Highway 101.”

Two buildings that survived a devastating fire in the 1920s, the Marshfield Sun Printing Museum and the Coos Bay Ironworks, will be open for walk participants to explore.

The event begins at 10 a.m. at the Coos Bay Boardwalk Pavilion.