Utah Heritage Foundation

As you may know, what is being dubbed the Hub District has long been known as the Warehouse District.  That name even dates back to before The Gateway was even a thought!  The Hub District, an area with SL Central Station (formerly known as the Intermodal Hub) has been going through a planning process to give agency and government officials ideas as to what the future should look like.

As described by Envision Utah, the Depot District is one of six key locations identified in the Wasatch Choice for 2040 (WC2040). WC2040 is the land-use and transportation “Vision” for Salt Lake, Weber, Davis and Utah Counties, developed by elected officials and the public to improve our quality of life as our region experiences dramatic growth.  Implementing the Vision will allow us to absorb a 65% population growth (1.4 million additional residents) over the next 30 years, while enhancing our economy, protecting our beautiful natural areas, providing more housing and transportation choices, saving money and energy, and improving our air quality and health.

Proposed Development Plan for Pleasant Grove Civic Center

Position Statement 

September 2, 2011

As you may recall, the Salt Lake Tribune reported back on August 7, 2011 that city officials, led by Mayor Becker, and the design and development team were looking at options for the Utah Performance Center (new broadway-style theater) that would demolish the historic Salt Lake Tribune building.  In the wake of that article, we've circulated the following statement.  How you can help is at the bottom of the statement.

August 16, 2011

Position Statement

This morning it was reported in the Salt Lake Tribune that The Leonardo will go before the City Council tonight with a request for a $600,000 loan to pay salaries.  Really?  They’ve spent all their finances on the capital project and now don’t have enough to keep their staff.  I’m not sure this bodes well for the future.

The preservation ethic that’s been established at The Leo also doesn’t bode well for the future.  The city received a grant from FEMA to do seismic stabilization to the former library building.  Under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, providing these federal funds required that impacts to the building from a new seismic system be reviewed by the Utah State Historic Preservation Office and interested consulting parties, of which Utah Heritage Foundation was one.  Utah Heritage Foundation helped make the case that the former Main Library is a significant structure that is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places even though it had not reached the 50 year age mark.  We spent more than two years in intensive discussions with representatives of The Leonardo, FEMA, state emergency management, and Salt Lake City Public Services and Engineering.  On several walk-throughs of the building, we collectively identified the character defining features of the building to be preserved including the large plate glass windows, cast concrete panels, sculptural mural on the south side, leaflights, escalators, the auditorium, and several areas of extensive wood and marble paneling.

After many meetings, an agreement was reached about the best type of seismic system to be installed in this historic structure and how to lessen its impacts to the character defining features of the building.  These features were then protected during the renovation in order to satisfy the FEMA grant.  At the time of a walk through to see a “nearly completed” project (April 2011), we saw that all of the historic features were intact and in good condition.  The Leonardo indicated that they were within 1-2 months of opening and we walked away feeling good that the public would have a chance to experience the former library in a new way.  It’s exactly how the Section 106 process should work successfully.

Unfortunate

New numbers were announced today on the productivity of investment in different sectors of the economy.  Here’s what was reported:

$1 million of government stimulus or incentive results in

                17 jobs in the green economy

In the April 2011 Community Newsletter produced by the University of Utah, among the campus projects announced was the pending demolition of Carlson Hall.  This is the first time the long-rumored new building for the U of U Law School has been publicly announced to be on the site of the historic women's residence hall turned classroom building.

Located on one of the most prominently seen sites on campus (corner of University Street @ 400 South), this structure completed in 1938, was designed by prominent SLC architects Ashton & Evans and built with WPA funds.  Carlson Hall was named after August Carlson who bequested $121,519.22 to the university upon his death.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 and also served as classrooms for numerous departments, mostly recently Math and Humanities.  It may not only be a target due to its prominent location on campus and proximity to the current Quinney Law School building, but also due to its understated architectual style which was prominently used at the time of construction.  Buildings of this type were not ostentious and the public would not supported that type of building in an era of going without meeting basic needs which led to being fiscally astute.

While historic preservation has played a prominent role on President's Circle where the majority of the oldest structures exist, it's unfortunate that a university that pledges to be concerned about sustainability and green building principles cannot see how conserving an entire building supports that policy and implement a campus-wide policy for historic preservation and rehabilitation.  It's left up to each individual school or college and its Dean with nearly carte blanche acceptance of whatever they dictate as long as the financial bottom line is met.  In my experience, only federal judges may have more power to dictate building projects.

Ogden’s time as the railroad hub was in its infancy when the first train pulled into town in 1869.  But business owners were already crafting ways to capitalize on this very new and exciting time to make money.  Allen Joseph Stout, Jr., a nephew of Hosea Stout, an early Utah settler and general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was in his early 20s and ready to jump on the railroad’s success.

In c. 1870, Stout started a saloon simply called, Stout’s Saloon, on lower 25^th Street.  This was a time before hotels, businesses, and taverns filled the street.  Stout’s business venture is significant today for two reasons.  First, it was an early tavern on 25^th Street, whereas others before it were located at the depot or on Main St. (now Washington Blvd.).  We now associate 25^th Street more with the history of taverns than other streets, which should be linked back to Stout.  Second, Stout’s Saloon was one of earliest of the many Mormon-owned saloons along 25^th Street during the nineteenth century.  As Ogden historian Val Holley notes, there was no “firewall” between Mormon and gentile business interests in the business district during that time.  Everyone had equal access to making money.

The September 18, 1876, Ogden Junction reported that the saloon kept by A.J. Stout had been damaged by a fire, and referred to “sneaking incendiaries who, under cover of darkness, set fires to burn up the property of citizens of Ogden.”  How unfortunate!

At the regular meeting of the Utah Heritage Foundation Board of Trustees on January 20, 2011, the Trustees voted unanimously in a resolution to “support saving the historic exterior walls of the Provo Tabernacle.“  This resolution was made with the intent to strongly encourage The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to rebuild.

Several Trustees expressed the same deep heartache that the residents and regular users of the Provo Tabernacle felt to see a physical landmark of this stature that held memories from childhood, teen and college years, and adulthood fall to a ruinous end.  Thus the reason for the passage of this recent resolution in hopes that there will be news of a positive announcement in the near future.

What do you think should happen at the Provo Tabernacle?  Give us your feedback.

Who said that economic times were slow?  Certainly not in Utah County.  You can witness rapid investment priming the pump of Utah’s economy all over Utah County, and especially in downtown Provo where the cranes are rising and trucks are hauling.

Unfortunately, one of the things the trucks are hauling is demolition debris from several older and historic buildings in Provo’s downtown historic district.  Yes, it was certainly time for some of these to probably go as they had been underutilized, unsupported by economic development programs for years, and thus neglected.  But there was still some charm and character in their scale and features and thus their contribution provided some good nature to being there.  Even in the last round of discussions with the Landmarks Commission, there was acknowledgment that in the future the city cannot allow contributing buildings to be altered, thus making them non-contributing buildings while they are listed in the local historic district or they will be de-listed and demolished just like these buildings.

So what the historic district is getting in place of handsome brick and stone, arched windows with lintels and keystones, Art Moderne and Victorian Commercial styles is glass, glass, and more glass.  On the North side, the Utah County convention center will take nearly an entire block and include a small plaza, but not include an entrance door along the entire stretch of 200 West, even though it looks like it does.

Today is demolition day at the West Jordan Sugar Factory.

Demolition will clear the way for an office building for the Third District Court, which is adjacent to the sugar factory.

Built in 1914, the complex of three buildings and two silos was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.  Since 2003, Utah Heritage Foundation has been supporting the work of the local Sugar Factory Committee toward rehabilitation of the complex.  Recently though, a political change of perspective has been led by Mayor Melissa Johnson, decrying the buildings as “an eyesore” and stating that in her opinion “the buildings aren’t architecturally significant.”

Earli