The hunt was on downtown Wednesday as Lawrence junior high students took to the streets in search of bronze.

About 30 youths went on a scavenger hunt for the bronze historical plaques on several downtown buildings during Wednesdays at Liberty Hall after-school program.

“I think growing up in Lawrence you see these buildings, but you don’t always know the history of them,” said Colin Elwell, the program’s director. “So hopefully they’ll learn something interesting, too.”

Wednesdays at Liberty Hall, sponsored by GaDuGi Safe Center, provides a safe, supervised place for students during their early release Wednesday afternoons. The idea of the program is to prevent students from wandering around downtown after school, but on Wednesday the students were downtown on a mission.

About five groups set out from Liberty Hall to find the plaques that include details about the buildings or other details that can be found throughout downtown. For example, students learned the only building to survive Quantrill’s Raid in 1863 was the House Building, now home to Francis Sporting Goods, 729 Mass.

Max Butterfield, an eighth-grader from South Junior High School, helped lead his team to find all the answers. He delegated team members to run to various locations to find their answers quicker.

“When you have a timeline, you want to make sure you are organized and not going from question to question,” he said.

His team found its final answer where its search began, at Liberty Hall, which they discovered is the former home of the Bowersock Opera House.

Their search for the bronze plaques proved successful, and not just in terms of fun.

“I learned a lot,” Butterfield said when his team was declared the winner.