Utah's Oldest Buildings

History is full of many interesting facts, and perhaps one of the most interesting is when a building can be identified as the oldest in a certain area. In Utah, the oldest structures no doubt were constructed by the Indigenous peoples of Utah, with their buildings dating back hundreds to thousands of years (it is also possible their oldest structures remain undiscovered and unexcavated).

This post will focus on the oldest buildings constructed by Euro-Americans in what is today Utah, specially the three oldest. The Miles Goodyear Cabin (the oldest), which, within a year or two was followed by the Osmyn & Mary Deuel Cabin and Levi & Rebecca Riter Cabin.

Miles Goodyear Cabin

The first group of Euro-Americans to build in Utah would have been the so-called mountain men. Generally, their structures were small “forts,” containing cabins where they lived and worked, and could trade with the native peoples, other mountain men, and passing migrants. Most of these forts are long gone, but one cabin from Fort Buenaventura remains.

This cabin, known as the Miles Goodyear Cabin, is believed to be the oldest extant building in Utah. It was built in 1845 or 1846 (a year or two before the Mormon Pioneers arrived) along the Weber River, in what is today Ogden, Utah. The cabin and Fort Buenaventura were sold to Mormon settlers soon after their arrival, and while the original fort is gone (an accurate replica stands in Weber County’s Fort Buenaventura Park), this cabin survives. It’s been moved around Ogden many times, and sat on the grounds of the Ogden Utah Temple for many years. It was moved to the corner of Lincoln Avenue and 21st Street in the early 2010s, where it sits outside the Weber County Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum. The museum and cabin are often open during the summers and it’s worth a visit to set foot in Utah’s oldest building!

Miles Goodyear Cabin

Great Salt Lake Fort - Cabins

The first structure the Mormon Pioneers built after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847 was the Great Salt Lake Fort. Today Salt Lake City’s “Pioneer Park” sits at the former location of the fort, which is just west of the main downtown area.

Two cabins from the fort survive and are in locations that can be easily visited. These two buildings are the:

Osmyn & Mary Deuel Cabin

The Duel Cabin has been preserved by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and for nearly 60 years sat on Temple Square. It was later moved, and today sits just across the street to the west, between FamilySearch’s Family History Library and the Church History Museum. It is usually open during the same hours as the Church History Museum and is free to visit.

Osmyn & Mary Deuel Cabin

Levi & Rebecca Riter Cabin

This cabin has been preserved by the State of Utah and can be visited (admission required) at the Heritage Village in This Is The Place Heritage Park in the foothills to the east of downtown Salt Lake City.

Levi & Rebecca Riter Cabin

Cemetery

An interesting tidbit, when the settlers built the Great Salt Lake Fort, they established a nearby cemetery. The exact location of the cemetery was lost until July 1986 when human remains were discovered during a construction project on Block 49. The long-lost cemetery was excavated and the remains were reinterred at a cemetery developed at Pioneer Trail State Park (currently called This Is The Place Heritage Park).

The Pioneer Cemetery at its new location, overlooking
the Salt Lake Valley

The Provo Industrial Lead: UTA’s Future TRAX corridor in Utah County

This post is going to be a bit different, there’s as much future in it as there is history, but we should remember that the future is built upon the past.

A TRAX Blue Line train sits at Draper, the current southern end of the line.

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) extending TRAX, its light rail system, into Utah County. This expansion has been part of UTA's long-term plan for decades, but with the redevelopment of the state prison site—near Point of the Mountain—there have been calls to speed up their construction plans. For example, see this KSL article: TRAX in Lehi? UTA provides preview of possible future light rail lines to Utah County

UTA has owned, for many years, the right-of-way that would make this extension possible. The southern part of the right-of-way is currently known as the “Provo Industrial Lead,” and it runs through the heart of Utah County. The northern part of the right-of-way has had TRAX trains rumbling through it for decades, while the middle section, through Draper and around Point of the Mountain, has sat mostly empty. The entire rail corridor has existed for 140+ years, having been originally constructed by the Utah Southern Railroad–a Mormon led venture to expand rail service south from Salt Lake City through the Salt Lake Valley and into the southern part of Utah County.

The Utah Southern Railroad broke ground for the railroad on May 1, 1871 and in November 1872 the line had reached Provo; the company would eventually take the rail as far south as York (an area between Mona and Santaquin). It is interesting to note that Latter-day Saint congregations in the area affected by the new line actually contributed labor to its construction.

One of the few remnants of the Utah Southern Railroad,
this original station at Lehi still stands.
One day UTA's TRAX trains will zip past on tracks just behind the station.

Eventually the Union Pacific (UP) gained control of the Utah Southern Railroad and their trains were commonly seen on the line until the mid to late-1980s. In October 1985 the UP had worked out an agreement with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RG)—the other large railroad in the area—in which the two companies were able to share track. The UP began to use D&RG’s track in Utah and Salt Lake Counties and the D&RG used UP’s track north of Salt Lake. (The UP purchased the D&RG’s assets in 1996, including their rail corridor in Utah County.) Today UTA’s FrontRunner and UP freight trains use the original D&RG rail corridor in Utah County–although north of Salt Lake City much of D&RG’s original corridor has been replaced with the D&RGW Rail Trail/Prospector Rail Trail for walking and cycling.

But, what happened to the Utah Southern Railroad/Union Pacific rail corridor in Utah and Salt Lake Counties after UP began using D&RG’s track? Even though it saw a substantial drop in traffic, the UP continued to use it to pick up/drop off freight for its customers along the line. This is where UTA now enters the picture, in 1992 they were able to purchase the corridor from 900 South in Salt Lake City to Point of the Mountain. (See ICC Finance Docket No. 32186.) Within a few years they had begun to pull up the old track and replace it with new track and wire for the TRAX light rail system. In 1999 they opened the system, which initially ran from Salt Lake City south to Sandy, all within the former Utah Southern Railroad/Union Pacific corridor. In 2013 they opened an extension which ran from Sandy to Draper and was just a continuation within the old corridor. (Other TRAX extensions, which run to the airport, Daybreak, University of Utah, and West Valley use other rail corridors.)

Where new meets old.
In the distance is UTA's TRAX, in the immediate foreground is the
remnants of the old track along the rail corridor.
Taken along Constitution Avenue at the Draper City Park.

In 1992 UTA had only purchased the corridor as far south as Point of the Mountain, but in 2002 they purchased another section, running south all the way to Hardy (an area near the border of Lindon and Orem, along Geneva Road). (See Surface Transportation Board Docket No. 34170.) It is generally this section of track, from Lehi to Orem that is known as the Provo Industrial Lead. UP retained rights to run their trains on the tracks, and infrequently trains are still running along the Provo Industrial Lead in Utah County serving the remaining companies along the line. (A similar agreement allows freight to be picked up/dropped off along the northern parts of the corridor when TRAX service ends for the night.)

There is still a small section of the Provo Industrial Lead not owned by UTA. This section runs from Hardy south to about the Orem FrontRunner Station, where it merges with other UP track. The aforementioned long-term plan is to continue TRAX from where it ends in Draper, around Point of the Mountain, through Utah County, to where it would end in Orem at the FrontRunner Station. This is among the reasons that the new bus rapid transit system, Utah Valley Express (UVX), was built starting in Orem–as no light rail system is in the long-term plan south of Orem. But, even with this long-term plan in place, there are a couple other options on the table for exactly where the track would run in a few locations.

The southern end of the Provo Industrial Lead is seen in the distance.
This area was historically known along the railroad as "Lakota Junction."
The view is from the Orem FrontRunner Station.

The section of the Provo Industrial Lead still owned by UP runs between Hardy and Orem along Geneva Road, and anyone entering Vineyard has to cross over it. Vineyard City officials believe the track is preventing development, and they have been working with UP to get it torn up. If this happens, TRAX will have to turn west at Hardy and run alongside new tracks paralleling FrontRunner, rather than using the last section of the Provo Industrial Lead. (Which won't offer much new to Vineyard or northern Orem.) These two possibilities are contrasted in the map below (as Vineyard Option 1 vs Vineyard Option 2).

The various options for bringing TRAX into Utah County.

The map above also shows the two current options presented for expansion in the southern part of the Salt Lake Valley. The first, and cheaper option, sticks with the long-range plan and just continues the line from Draper around Point of the Mountain using the existing Utah Southern Railroad/Union Pacific rail corridor. The second option would construct a new corridor running west from Sandy and then south through the state prison site, with it connecting to the Utah Southern Railroad/Union Pacific rail corridor at Point of the Mountain. This plan would provide rail transport directly to whatever development happens at the site of the prison, but would be costlier and more disruptive due to the construction of a whole new corridor. No doubt the citizens of Draper would prefer the route through the prison site, as many have built homes up against the Utah Southern Railroad/Union Pacific corridor and would prefer not to see it re-purposed for TRAX. But, then again, they did choose to build next to a rail corridor that has been there for 140+ years.

Vegetation along the tracks is heavily overgrown in the
southern part of Draper. It is still unknown if TRAX will use this
section of the corridor.

It is pretty much a guarantee that the Utah Southern Railroad/Union Pacific corridor will have to be used at Point of the Mountain, as I-15 takes most of the room at the summit and the FrontRunner and UP tracks already use the space down in the Jordan River Narrows. Not too long ago, property owners near the corridor at Point of the Mountain actually sued claiming that since the corridor wasn’t currently being used, the right-of-way should be forfeit. The federal government ended up paying $24 million to preserve the right-of-way. (See GENEVA ROCK PRODUCTS, INC., ET AL. v. USA)

The Utah Southern Railroad/Union Pacific
rail corridor near Point of the Mountain.
Taken from the Porter Rockwell Trail, where it passes over Bangerter Parkway.
Future views of the Salt Lake Valley from TRAX in this
area would be beautiful.

While we may be seeing TRAX to Lehi sooner rather than later, it will likely be a long time before it goes any further south. As we watch the process, bear in mind that any extensions will bring out the UTA haters. We will likely hear first and loudest from those in Draper living along the rail corridor, but I also expect some in Lehi, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, Lindon, and Orem to fight expansion through their cities.

A section of the Provo Industrial Lead at Pleasant Grove. The track
passes underneath State Street in the distance.
Taken from the 200 South road crossing.
The Utah Southern Railroad and Union Pacific had their Pleasant Grove
stations at this location. (Just to the east still stands the Pleasant Grove station
of the Salt Lake and Utah Railroad. It has been converted into a home.)

Some cities along the rail corridor have worked with UTA to add
walking and cycling paths along the tracks. In Draper the trail is known as
the "Porter Rockwell Trail" and in Lehi it is called
the "Historic Utah Southern Rail Trail."

If you're interested, a local group of rail fans run a YouTube channel called ERA Films and they caught some train action along the Provo Industrial Lead back in 2016. The video starts in roughly the area of Hardy:

Salt Lake City's Telephone Exchange

Nestled next to City Creek Center mall in downtown Salt Lake City is a somewhat unassuming Art Deco building. But this multi-story terra-cotta covered edifice is a lot more important to Salt Lake City’s past and present than it may let on. What is it? The telephone exchange building.

Salt Lake City's telephone exchange building.
Corner of State Street and 100 South.

Today just about everyone takes for granted the telecommunications network that connects our world. It is so out of sight that few give any thought to it, except perhaps for when it temporarily stops working. We simply pick up a phone or type an internet address into our web browser and expect it to work, without much thought as to how it does so.

You might be asking what exactly is a telephone exchange? It is essentially a switch that connects two telephones. I will explain the process, but be warned, this is somewhat oversimplified. If you have landline telephone service, there is a wire that runs directly from your house (either underground or on poles) to a building housing the telephone exchange. This building is usually called the “Central Office.” Large cities may have several exchanges and buildings, whereas a number of small towns may actually share an exchange. If you are in Utah, it is likely your city has an small, unassuming, and often windowless building which serves as the local central office. One easy way to identify an exchange is the prefix number (For example, 795 is the prefix for everyone on the Fillmore, Utah exchange, and 785 is the prefix for everyone on the Pleasant Grove, Utah exchange. At one time exchanges actually had names, so Pleasant Grove was SUnset-5, with the “S” and “U” eventually becoming 78. (Keep in mind these are prefixes, not area codes, which came later and cover a much larger area.)

As the wire enters the central office it is connected to switching equipment. In the early days the switching was done manually by a woman working at a switchboard and later automatic switching, by way of dialing telephone numbers was invented. If you call someone who is connected to the same exchange (so usually in the same town) you will simply be connected through a switch in the same building. If you call someone who is further away, your exchange will have to connect to their local exchange which will then connect you to their telephone. Calls which require you to connect to more distant exchanges are “toll” calls where your regular telephone subscription does not cover the cost and you have to pay extra–commonly called a long-distance fee. Cell phone towers connect to a similar building, known as a Mobile Telephone Switching Office.

While the exchange building seen today is not the original central office in Salt Lake City, it is interesting to note that every Bell System telephone exchange in the city has been on this block (block 75). This post will not really be a history of the telephone system in Salt Lake City, but rather a history of the exchange buildings and their growth.

On Friday, April 22, 1881 the first telephone exchange office opened for business in Salt Lake City.(1) The office and its switchboard were housed in the Western Union Telegraph Office on Main Street. (This telegraph office is also where the all-important final connection in the first transcontinental telegraph was made.) The telephone system proved so popular that within weeks additional equipment had to be sent for and the company quickly outgrew its space in the telegraph office. That summer the office moved just a few doors south, to the third floor of the Deseret National Bank building.(2)

Salt Lake City telegraph office and first home to the telephone
exchange in 1881.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Deseret Bank Building and home to the telephone exchange
from 1881-1895. Corner of Main Street and 100 South.
Notice the framing for telephone wires on the roof of the building.
Source: Utah State Historical Society Classified Photo Collection,
number 19423.

The exchange remained in the Deseret Bank building until January 1895, when it moved into its own specially designed home on the opposite side of the block, at 56 South State Street. Built just north of the famous Salt Lake Theatre, the new building was three stories high and was made as fireproof as possible.(3) The building’s new switchboard was a top of line replica of one exhibited by AT&T at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. The board, which cost $12,000, was capable of handling 3,000 “instruments” (they called a telephone an instrument and you didn’t actually own an instrument, just rented it from the telephone company).(4)

One of the more dramatic changes to the telephone system that accompanied the new building was the burying of the telephone lines as they approached the building. The lines entered conduit at the intersection of State Street and 100 South, then traveled underground to enter the exchange building.(5) As you can imagine, having hundreds and eventually thousands of individual wires running into a single building on poles was unsightly and impractical, and they were better protected underground. Another improvement was that customers no longer had to ring their party after the exchange had made the connection, rather the operator would do the ringing.(6) The Salt Lake Tribune called this new way of placing a call “to telephone a la metropolitan.”(7) Double wire, still a telephone standard, was also introduced at the time.(7)

The new building was ready for business by the middle of January 1895, with the employees receiving training for the new switchboard on the 15th. The switchover happened on Saturday, January 19, 1895, with the hope it could be “made without the knowledge of the subscribers."(8)

Much like what had occurred in former locations, the space quickly became in inadequate, and by 1900 the telephone company was already talking about an addition to their new building.(9) Construction on an addition to the north side of the building, which almost doubled its size, was underway by 1902.(10) The Salt Lake Telegram reported that once the addition was completed, the first floor of would include the local contract office, storage room, and a large bicycle storage area for 50 bikes. The second floor would include the company’s general offices, and finally the third floor would include a huge new switchboard, engineer’s office, and wash and cloak rooms for the operators. The wall of the old building would be removed on the third floor to allow for a large open space spanning both the original building and its new addition.(10)

The 1902 switchboard would allow for a new feature. No longer would you have to ring the central office by way of the bell crank, but when you lifted the receiver a small indicator on the switchboard would flip and the operator would know you needed to place a call. All old instruments were gathered up and replaced with new ones capable of this feature.(11)

But in just a few years time—yet again—the telephone business in the city outgrew the building. By the summer of 1906 plans were already underway to add a rear addition, basement, and two stories to the top of the building.(12) New switchboards (one for local calls and one for long distance) were to placed on the new fifth floor, with a glass partition separating the two. The additions were completed and the new switchboard went into operation on Sunday, October 6, 1907. If you’re interested in the final layout of this building I highly suggest reading an article from the Salt Lake Herald entitled, Bell Phones Working Through New Switchboard. Apparently at the time the switchboard was the longest in the world.(13)

The telephone exchange building at 56 South Street Street,
as seen in its different stages of expansion.
Source: Utah State Historical Society Classified Photo Collection,
numbers 05584, 05585, 15080.

When the 1895 building was constructed, it was placed just north of the Salt Lake Theatre. A landmark of downtown, the theater was run by the Salt Lake Dramatic Association. The association, whose largest stockholder was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sold the theater to the telephone company in 1928 for $200,000.(14) The last show, the opera Robin Hood, was held in the theater on October 20, 1928.(15) By the end of December 1928 razing of the theater was nearly completed.(16) Even though the theater was gone, the telephone company didn't build anything new right away. In fact, a service station was built on the site of the theater. It was not until nearly a decade later, in January 1939 that the telephone company finally announced construction of a new building on the lot.

The new exchange building, today at 70 South State Street, would include three stories and a basement. The basement would be where the wires would enter the building and would also include emergency generators. The main floor would house the business office, the second floor would have space for long distance and information, and the third floor would contain the dialing equipment. (The entire building was designed so additional floors could be added.) Of major interest was the additional announcement that dialing would be coming to Salt Lake City. Apparently up to that time it was still all operator-based routing of phone calls. At the time, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that it was “the largest manually-operating exchange in the world.”(17)

Construction started about March 1939 and the business office in the new building was opened on Monday, December 18, 1939 (although the article pointed out that the new equipment would not be operating until the following August).(18) Once the new equipment was installed and running, at midnight on August 17, 1940 the switchover was made and Salt Lake City finally got dial service operating out of the new central office.

An advert introducing both the new exchange
building and dial service.
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, 4 August 1940.

In tribute to the old Salt Lake Theatre, a large plaque—about seven feet high and four feet wide—was placed in a niche on the east side of the new exchange building. The plaque was sculpted by Mahonri Young, a grandson of Brigham Young. It was dedicated during the Church’s October General Conference in 1940.(19)

The Salt Lake Theatre plaque on the east side of
the telephone exchange building.

This building was specifically designed to support additional floors and in 1947 three more were added.(20) At the same time an addition to the north side, spanning all six stories, and including a new entrance along State Street was constructed. In 1956–1957 the building was expanded yet again, this time a three-story addition was made to the north of the building.(21)(22) And finally, in 1962–1963 three more stories were added on top of the 1956 addition.(22) This was the last addition made to the building in which the architecture was made to blend in with the original 1939 construction. These various additions are highlighted in the image below. (A concrete addition, with a stamped design—a map with LED lights—was added on the north side sometime circa 2002, but I cannot find out exactly when or why.)

The various additions, along with the year construction started.

The telephone exchange building at 70 South Street Street
as seen in its different stages of expansion.
Source: Utah State Historical Society Classified Photo Collection,
numbers 26046, 62598b, 25162.

The next time changes came to the building were in large part because of the construction of the ZCMI Center Mall on the same block. Up until this time both the 1895 and 1939 buildings (and their additions) had stood side by side; this is shown on the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map clipping below.

Both buildings (connected by tunnel) can be seen on
this Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1950.
Source: J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah

Unfortunately, the 1895 building was damaged during the construction of the ZCMI Center Mall and in the fall of 1976 it was torn down.(23) While construction on ZCMI was occurring, a new addition on the west side of the exchange building was built, although no effort was made to match it to the exterior of the main building. This addition initially held long distance switching equipment.(24)

The south side of the building. The large gray building
at left is the 1970s addition.

It would be some time until anymore exterior changes were made to the building. In 2006, the Church of Jesus Christ announced that they would be tearing down the 1970s ZCMI Center Mall and replacing it with a new mall, called City Creek Center. The new mall was constructed between 2006–2012, and much like during the construction of the first mall, the surrounding work would mean new changes for the telephone exchange building. The changes were not as dramatic as seen in the past, but they included "reskinning" the 1970s addition by replacing its brown block exterior with a smooth grayish exterior (as seen in the image above), an exterior mimicking the terra-cotta on the street facing sides of the building was added to the north side of the main exchange building, and the tower connecting the building to AT&T's microwave network was removed.

Since the construction of City Creek Center, little has changed on the exterior of the building. Today the secured entrance boasts the logos of both AT&T and CenturyLink. The building is likely home to CenturyLink's local exchange and houses entrance points into AT&T's large data network (which is used for much more than voice calls). This blog post focused mostly on the changes to the exteriors of the buildings, and while the interior "guts" have likely seen many more changes and will continue to see them, information is hard to obtain. This is in large part due to the need to secure the network and also because the changes are so technical and happen fairly regularly.

It is hoped this post has given the reader a better understanding of how Salt Lake City's telephone system has grown over the years.

Works Cited

1. "The Telephone." Salt Lake Herald, 23 April 1881, 3.

2. "Telephone Exchange." Salt Lake Tribune, 1 January 1882, 13.

3. "The Telephone Building." Salt Lake Herald, 24 January 1894.

4. "Construction to Be Resumed." Salt Lake Herald, 15 May 1894.

5. "Making Very Rapid Progress." Salt Lake Herald, 29 September 1894.

6. "Less Rings Necessary." Salt Lake Herald, 10 January 1895.

7. "On A Metropolitan Basis." Salt Lake Herald, 20 January 1895.

8. "They Want A Telephone." Salt Lake Herald, 16 January 1895.

9. "Will Enlarge Its Building." Salt Lake Tribune, 6 January 1900. (See also mention of an addition in "Fourteen Thousand Miles of Wire to go Underground." Salt Lake Herald, 7 September 1901.) 

10. "Big Improvements in the Telephone Building." Salt Lake Telegram, 12 June 1902.

11. "3,500 Connections Made In 10 Minutes." Salt Lake Telegram, 19 August 1902.

12. "Bell Telephone is Enlarging Plant." Salt Lake Tribune, 8 July 1906.

13. Herbert J. Hackenburg, Jr. Muttering Machines to Laser Beams: A History of Mountain Bell, (Denver, Colorado, Mountain Bell, 1986), 79.

14. "Telephone Co. Purchases Salt Lake Theatre." Salt Lake Telegram, 16 April 1928.

15. "Final Salt Lake Theatre Show to be Held Oct. 20." Salt Lake Telegram, 7 October 1928.

16. "Wrecking of Salt Lake Theatre Nearly Finished." Salt Lake Telegram, 26 December 1928.

17. "Phone Company Plans Two Buildings in S.L." Salt Lake Tribune, 30 January 1939, 1&3.

18. "Throngs Visit Offices of Phone Firm." Salt Lake Tribune, 19 December 1939.

19. "Plaque Enters Theater Site Niche Today" Salt Lake Tribune, 24 September 1940.

20. "Builders Finish Exterior of Phone Edifice." Salt Lake Tribune, 7 December 1947, 6B.

21. "S.L. City, County Building Top $15 Million as ’57 Bids Adieu." Salt Lake Tribune, 29 December 1957.

22. "MST&T to Add Three Floors." Salt Lake Tribune, 9 September 1962.

23. "Telephone Landmark Falls After 81 Years." Salt Lake Tribune, 2 October 1976.

24. "Mountain Bell Plans Year of Expansion." Salt Lake Tribune, 27 January 1974.

Brigham Young’s Downtown Complex

A visitor to downtown Salt Lake City might have a hard time envisioning the early cityscape, perhaps because it was more of a farmscape than a downtown. Early Salt Lake City was a splattering of single family homes, often built of adobe. Most of these homes included plenty of yard, trees, and garden space. There was also a more congested—but small—business district, which ran along Main Street and spread out to some connecting streets.

Perhaps one of the most difficult parts of Salt Lake’s past to envision would be Brigham Young’s Downtown Complex. Brigham Young, second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, owned several properties and homes (for his numerous wives) in Salt Lake City. The focus of this post will be the large downtown complex, which included the Beehive and Lion Houses. For those interested in all of Young’s homes (in Salt Lake, other parts of Utah, and other homes in the Eastern United States) I recommend finding a copy of Brigham Young’s Homes, edited by Colleen Whitley, and published by Utah State University Press in 2002.

While apartments and condominiums now cover the majority of the property that made up the downtown complex, what remains from Young’s time includes: the Beehive and Lion Houses, the early Church and Territorial Offices, and a few sections of a huge rock wall that once surrounded Young’s land. The modern-day Eagle Gate and Brigham Young Historic Park also pay homage to the memory of this downtown property.

My next several blog posts will explore this downtown complex; what is gone and what remains.

To start, let’s get a basic overview of the complex. Below are two drawings which are useful in conceptualizing the property. It appears that each creator took some artistic license creating the bird's eye views—as demonstrated by the Salt Lake Temple which is shown as completed 20+ years too soon—but the overall picture is fairly accurate.

Birds-Eye View of Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, 1870.

Drawn by Augustus Koch.

Digital Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.

Source: https://lccn.loc.gov/75696611

Birds-Eye View of Salt Lake City, from the North, looking South-East, Utah, 1875.

Drawn and published by E. S. Glover.

Digital Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.

Source: https://lccn.loc.gov/75696614

Young’s complex ran south to north between South Temple to 4^th Avenue, and west to east from Main Street to Walnut Street (currently “A Street”), narrowing as it ran north besides City Creek.

Below is a 2016 satellite image of Salt Lake City. The red outline encloses Young’s property as shown in the drawings above. This outline is an approximation only, especially towards the left side of the image. The western half of this block was the Church’s Tithing Office and Yard, and during the nineteenth century it is often difficult to differentiate Church owned property, from property owned by Church leaders.

Map Data: Google

Stay tuned for additional posts about the various features of Brigham Young's Downtown Complex.

Who bombed the Salt Lake Temple?

Damage to the front of the Salt Lake Temple
following the explosion. Note the broken windows.
Source: Deseret News, 14 Nov 1962, B1.

Shortly before 2 AM on Wednesday, 14 November 1962 those living near Salt Lake’s Temple Square were awakened by an explosion which shook their homes. An employee at the nearby Greyhound Bus Depot reported that it “kind of rocked things for a while,” and that “it felt a little like [a] quake, but I figured it was an explosion.”(2) The Salt Lake City Police switchboard was flooded with calls from concerned neighbors, while three watchmen on Temple Square scrambled to find the source of the blast.

Reports in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune conflict in regards to which of the watchmen finally discovered the damage, and how long it took to do so (with 20 minutes being the shortest time and 40 the longest). When finally discovered, one of the doors on the temple’s east front exhibited a five-inch hole where a doorknob had once sat. The windows on that door, and several set in the granite walls above and around the door had all been shattered; a total of 11 windows were broken, including some in the interior. Inside of the temple, damage was done to doors, light fixtures, and plaster. The foyer behind the front door was covered in wooden splinters along with bits of metal and glass. The Trib reported that one of the temple’s famous doorknobs had been sent flying into the building, puncturing a hole in a wall.(1)

A view of the damage inside the temple's foyer.
The splintered front door is on the right.
Source: Deseret News, 14 Nov 1962, B10, SLC Police photo.

Initial investigations concluded that the damage was most likely done with a plastic explosive. The Church gave permission for FBI Agents and experts from Dugway Proving Ground to examine the damaged area. There was a concern that the explosive used may have been sold to the public as surplus property. Investigators guessed that the culprit had scaled the wall or hidden on the square at closing time, because the wall’s gates were locked at the time of the explosion.

"Viva Castro" Graffiti.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune,
15 Nov 1962, B1.

Both newspapers mention some recent “pranks” pulled on the Church, most prominently graffiti left near the site of the blast. This consisted of the words “Viva Castro” inscribed on the wall just opposite where the bomb went off (but there is some ambiguity in both articles whether the graffiti was done a few days prior to or if it was concurrent with the bombing). These words were no doubt a reference to Fidel Castro and the successful Cuban Revolution which had brought a major change in that country’s government. Castro and communism had been discussed during the 132^nd semi-annual general conference, held the month prior to the bombing. During that conference the perceived dangers of communism were discussed by a few speakers, with Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking at length on Castro, Cuba, and communism.(8)

In his personal life Elder Benson was a strong supporter of the anti-communist John Birch Society, even writing to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in support of the society and condemning their mutual friend President Dwight D. Eisenhower.(4) Benson’s son Reed had become coordinator of Utah’s chapter of the John Birch Society just weeks prior to the attack on the temple.(7) Because of this some Latter-day Saints and non-members had started to wonder about the relationship between the Church and the John Birch Society, something which distressed President David O. McKay. As a result the First Presidency of the Church released a statement, which read in part: “We deplore the presumption of some politicians, especially officers, co-ordinators and members of the John Birch Society, who undertake to align the Church or its leadership with their political views.”(3) This statement was released in January 1963, less than two months after the bombing.

Did the political activism of the Benson family, which was often over the pulpit, convince the bomber that the Church and the John Birch Society were conspiring together? There are other ideas about who bombed the temple; historian Jeffery O. Johnson has said “many Mormons associated this incident with the violence of the nation’s racial strife.”(6) Perhaps racial tensions, especially over the Church’s Priesthood Ban, was what bothered the bomber. And yet still it could have been simply a nighttime prank. Unfortunately the crime never seems to have been solved and I have been unable to find any further reports on the investigation.

Two SLC Police officers look at each other through
the hole blasted in the temple door.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune, 15 Nov 1962, B1.

This was not the only time a bomb went off on Temple Square. During the construction of the Hotel Utah (now the Joseph Smith Memorial Building) a bomb set by members of an ironworkers union damaged the partially built hotel and also damaged the Angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake Temple. A fellow blogger has written an article on this episode here: http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2009/08/23/the-day-the-angel-moroni-almost-lost-his-horn/

Also nearby, the infamous Mark Hofmann was injured by one of his own bombs which exploded just north of the present Conference Center on 16 October 1985.

Works Cited

1. Baldwin, Jim G. “Blast Damages Temple in S.L.” Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah), 15 November 1962, B1/B2.

2. “Blast Damages S.L. Temple- Believed Work of Vandals.” Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah), 14 November 1962, B1/B10.

3. “Church Sets Policy on Birch Society.” Deseret News, 3 January 1963, A1. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LZMpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JUoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6155%2C556242

4. Davidson, Lee. “FBI files shed light on Ezra Taft Benson, Ike and the Birch Society.” Salt Lake Tribune, 16 November 2010. http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=11289154&itype=storyID

5. “Detonation of Plastic Explosive Damages Front Door of Salt Lake Temple.” Church News (Salt Lake City, Utah), 17 November 1962, 4.

6. Johnson, Jeffery O. “Change and Growth: The Mormon Church & the 1960s.” Sunstone Magazine, June 1994, 25.

7. Nokes, R. Greg. “Son of Former Agriculture Secretary Now Heads State John Birch Society.” Gadsden Times (Gadsden, Alabama), 19 May 1963, 6.

8. Report of the 132^nd Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1962. https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1962sa

Have you visited MormonTemples.org?

Edit: As of 2018, mormontemples.org appears to have been taken down. The URL redirects to the temples section of lds.org, which unfortunately doesn't include the many interior photos.

The Church has recently released a redesign of mormontemples.org! Unlike many websites with temple information, mormontemples.org is an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Therefore it is a good one for you to visit and point non-members to. One of the new features is a "Temple Tour" which includes a clickable floor plan of a temple, with explanations and videos. Also included under "Find a Temple" are beautiful photographs of each temple, and some even include interior photos (both modern and historical). Here is an example of a historical photo found in the St. George Temple media gallery:

Garden Room, St. George Temple, prior to 1975.
Source: mormontemples.org.

Original Layout of the St. George Utah Temple

(May 2019 update: The Church has announced a renovation of the St. George Utah Temple. The temple will close in November 2019, with the work expected to be completed in 2022. Check out the details here: https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-shares-renovation-plans-st-george-utah-temple.)

For many Latter-day Saints the pioneer era temples are among the most recognizable and best loved. The oldest of these historic buildings is the St. George Utah Temple. This temple was dedicated in 1877 and it has been in use continually since that time (with the exception of relatively short remodeling closures). For us in 2015 that has been 138 years! While the building’s stark white exterior has changed little during that time, the interior spaces—specifically the lower levels—have been heavily remodeled.

The addition of modern conveniences like electricity, elevators, and—very important to this corner of Utah—air conditioning, have all played a large part in necessitating the many remodelings. But there have been other reasons to change the temple’s interior as well. For example, the most recent major remodeling came in the 1970s when, among other changes, the rooms used to present the endowment ordinance were modified to allow this presentation by way of a film. Yet the endowment rooms changed during this remodel were not 1877 originals. In fact when the temple was dedicated there were not truly permanent endowment rooms like we see in modern-day temples.

The St. George Temple’s basic design and original interior were very similar to the 1846 Nauvoo Temple. In fact when archaeological studies were being conducted on the Nauvoo Temple site in the 1960s, the archaeologists used St. George Temple plans and photographs to help interpret what they were finding (Harrington, 5). These two temples in turn shared a basic floor plan with the Kirtland Temple and other unbuilt temples of the restoration. While I hope to do a more in-depth post on the design similarities of the early Latter-day Saint temples I will give a summary here:

The Kirtland Temple, whose original layout remains preserved to this day, includes two large assembly rooms which take up the majority of floor space on the two lower stories of the temple. These large assembly rooms include pulpits at both ends where Church leadership would sit during meetings. Curtains were also suspended from the ceiling and could be lowered to partition these large assembly spaces into smaller temporary rooms. Above these two floors is a third story “attic” which is permanently divided up into small rooms and was used mostly as classroom space. All three stories are accessed from a vestibule on the east end which includes two staircases. Topping the temple’s east end is a small tower. There is a basement level but it is little more than a storage/crawl space. Looking at the HABS drawing below will help you make sense of this layout.

The Kirtland Temple.
Source: Historic American Buildings Survey.

The Kirtland Temple.
Source: Historic American Buildings Survey.

The next temple constructed by the Latter-day Saints (Nauvoo) followed this same floor plan, with two important additions. The first was the addition of a basement level which included a font to be used in Baptisms for the Dead. These baptisms had yet to be practiced when the Kirtland Temple was built. The second design change was the addition of mezzanine levels above each assembly room. These levels were made up of small rooms running the length of the temple. So in review there was the basement level with its baptistry, the first assembly room level, the first mezzanine level, the second assembly room level, the second mezzanine level, and finally the attic level. All six of these levels were accessed from two spiral staircases located in the corners of the temple at the west end.

The St. George Temple would follow the same pattern as the Nauvoo Temple, with the exception of the attic story; there would be no level above the second mezzanine level. The endowment ordinance which had taken place on Nauvoo’s attic floor would take place on the basement level of the St. George Temple (Yorgason, 226). This meant the basement of the St. George temple would be a beehive of activity, with not only the canvas partitioned endowment rooms and the baptistry, but with changing rooms, the boiler, and equipment for indoor plumbing (Ibid).

A cross section of the
St. George Temple; circa 1877.

Above the St. George Temple’s basement level was the first assembly room, which like the Kirtland Temple could be partitioned with canvas curtains. This was followed by the first mezzanine level, then the second assembly room, and finally the second mezzanine level. Just like in the original Nauvoo Temple both of the mezzanine levels contained numerous small rooms running the length of the temple. There were eight on each side of the temple, totaling 16 on each floor. The large elliptical arched ceilings found in the center of both assembly rooms extended up past the floor line of the mezzanine levels. Today these small rooms are mainly used for sealings, while some contain HVAC equipment, and others are supposedly empty. Historically the rooms had many uses, I have even heard tell that some were used as apartments for those from out of town, though I can’t back this up with a reliable source. All of these levels were accessed by two spiral staircases at the east end of the temple.

It can be difficult to envision the layout of the temple through reading, so I have draw and posted some diagrams to help. These are based upon original temple drawings by Truman O. Angell which were published in The St. George Temple: The First 100 Years by Janice Force DeMille, and upon my personal knowledge/observations and that which has been shared to me by others. Keep in mind these are not professional or 100 percent accurate.

According to the authors of All That Was Promised: The St. George Temple and the Unfolding of the Restoration the basement very quickly proved to be too small and the two final rooms used in the endowment (the terrestrial and celestial rooms) were moved from the basement to the first assembly floor (Yorgason, 286-288). The exact layout isn’t publicly known, though it appears it was done with canvas partitions rather than physical walls. For 60 years the basement would include the creation, garden, and world rooms (which included beautiful murals) while the first level assembly room provided space for the remainder of the endowment (Yorgason, 238).

First assembly room floor plan, circa 1877. Notice the pulpits at either end of the hall and the room in the tower. The temple originally had two of these levels, but the lower one was eventually remodeled into smaller rooms for use in the endowment ceremony. These levels can be identified on the exterior by the long windows.

Mezzanine level floor plan, circa 1877. The temple has two of these floors, both of which still retain much of their original decoration and layout. They are located above the assembly room levels; the arched center assembly room ceilings extend up into the center of the mezzanine levels. These levels can be identified on the exterior by the round windows.

The different floors of the temple can be identified by the exterior. In the photo above, the different colored bars represent the different floors of the temple. From the bottom to the top, the floors are: basement, first assembly (currently the endowment room level), first mezzanine, second assembly (currently the only assembly room), and finally the second mezzanine. The 1970s western addition can be seen to the left of the colored bars. This addition includes stairwells and an elevator, which is how temple patrons normally access the different floors. The east tower includes additional levels not visible in this photograph.

Between 1937 and 1938 the temple was closed for a remodeling project in which the basement endowment rooms were abandoned and permanent creation, garden, and world rooms were constructed on the first assembly room level. The terrestrial and celestial rooms already on that floor were remodeled and moved to fit the new floor plan. At present all the endowment rooms remain on this level of the temple.

By the 1970s it was decided to remodel the temple once again. The rooms used to present the endowment would be changed around to allow for a film presentation. Church architect Emil B. Fetzer, who designed the Provo and original Ogden Utah Temples would led the remodeling program (DeMille, 113). On the west end of the temple a large addition was made, which added two new stairwells and an elevator. This allowed the temple patrons to skip the old circular staircases at the east end. The first three rooms of the endowment ceremony (creation, garden, and world) were basically gutted and turned into stationary rooms with a screen at one end on which to project the film. Entrance into these rooms is made through doorways placed in the old west wall windows that are now accessible from the western addition. Doors were cut from each of these stationary endowment rooms into the present veil room. I believe this veil room was once the terrestrial room, though how much it has changed I do not know. The celestial room was essentially unchanged and today remains fairly similar to its 1938 configuration. At present the endowment begins in one of the three rooms (which are on a rotating schedule) after which the patron moves to the veil room and then finally the celestial room.

A cross section of the modern
St. George Temple; circa 2015.

Today’s basement is used for the baptistry and its locker rooms, plus locker rooms for temple workers. The entire basement story must be fairly high, as the at the east end the floor has been split into two separate stories. The bottom story is the changing rooms for the sisters and the top story contains rooms for the brethren. The baptistry is towards the west end and includes the original refurbished font, two rooms for confirmations, a foyer with recommend desk, name desk, a small chapel, clothing issue, and locker rooms.

The St. George Temple would be the only Utah temple built with the “restoration” temple design of two assembly halls. The other pioneer temples (Logan, Manti, and Salt Lake) were all constructed with permanent endowment rooms in the lower levels and a single assembly room on the top floor. This short history ignores many other construction projects seen on the temple, such as its numerous annexes, and the building of a new taller tower. But hopefully this post adds to your appreciation of the St. George Temple and its continual part in the restoration of Christ's Gospel.

Works Cited

DeMille, Janice Force. The St. George Temple: The First 100 Years. Hurricane, Utah: Homestead Publishers, 1977.

Harrington, Virginia S. and J. C. Harrington. Rediscovery of the Nauvoo Temple: Report on Archaeological Excavations. Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. 1971.

Kirtland Temple (Mormon). Historic American Buildings Survey.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/oh0043/

Yorgason, Blaine M., Richard A. Schmutz and Douglas D. Alder. All That Was Promised: The St. George Temple and the Unfolding of the Restoration. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013.