The Ghosts of Eden Park and Utah's Very Slight Connection

The audiobook I'm listening to right now: 
The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who
Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America

George and Imogene Remus

The Ghosts of Eden Park is about the bootlegger king, George Remus and his wife Imogene. They were big names in the Midwest in the 1920s. 

Of course I found a (slight) Utah connection: Clarence Beard was an associate (or so he says) of George Remus and he was captured in Salt Lake City in 1928, after his escape from a Criminally Insane Hospital in Ohio for the murder of Stephen Zaborskis in Cleveland. He was identified by the new technology of fingerprinting.

Utah closely followed the sensational trial of George Remus.

Charles Beard, an associate of George Remus, was captured in SLC.

Beyond the bootlegging aspect, the women are independent and ambitious. I particularly enjoy Mabel Walker Willebrant, US Assistant Attorney General in the 1920s and prosecuted Remus. She was a professional lawyer who turned down an offer of marriage to keep working and then adopted a child as a single mother.

New GE Refrigerators at the Critchlow Apts

This is a fun photo of the Critchlow Apartments at 379 1^st Ave SLC (now known as First Avenue Flats).

General Electric Refrigerators for installation at Critchlow Apartments, Salt Lake City. ca 1929.
Image from USHS.

Detail of above.

It shows the delivery of new General Electric refrigerators, probably in 1929.

Known as “Monitor Top” refrigerators because their top mounted compressors resembled the gun turret of the Civil War ship, USS Monitor.

GE Monitor-Top Refrigerator.
Image from Albany Institute of Art History and Art. 

These were considered the first affordable refrigeration units for the average family, around $300 (about $5,500 in 2025 dollars). Often these refrigerators, and other electric devices, were offered for sale through the electric utility company, in this case, Utah Power and Light.

Salt Lake's Franklin Avenue as a Historic Black Neighborhood

General location of Franklin Avenue, between 200-300 South and State St-200 East

Between about 1885 and the 1920s, Franklin Ave (now Edison St) became home to a large population of Black Americans.

This mid-block alley situated within the original 13th Ward, started out like other blocks of the original SLC plat- residential and agricultural lands divided among early Mormon settlers of the 1840s-1850s.

After the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 (through Ogden) and the first railroad spur to SLC in 1870, new arrivals became more common. Coupled with the great western migration of Black Americans after the Civil War, Salt Lake (and Ogden) became a place for people to find work relating to the railroad and hospitality, often the only type of jobs that Black people were allowed to obtain, such as porters, waiters, cooks, maids, laborers, etc. As such, both Salt Lake and Ogden saw population increase of Black Americans and other groups.

A view of Salt Lake City in the 1870s. Although Franklin Ave is located outside the image, it gives a good idea of what the area looked like at this time.

 
Also, by 1870, those early log cabins and small adobe homes on large parcels belonging to the original Mormon settlers had largely fallen into disrepair and had been subdivided; sometimes sold for redevelopment and sometimes rented out to the new SLC arrivals, generally those economically disadvantaged newcomers who could afford these low-cost rentals. On Franklin Avenue, these tended to be Scandinavian speaking converts to the LDS church (through the 1870s-1880s) and eventually to Black Americans.

Franklin Ave had a reputation for being a tough neighborhood in the 1870s. At the time a large Scandinavian population lived on the street. As was common with mid-block alleys, a number of raucous characters were present. Newspapers noted that two families often indulged “in the unlawful practice of calling each other bad names, in the Scandinavian language.”

Brothels started up on Franklin Ave at this time as well. Mid-block alleys and the hidden center of city blocks were out of sight from the more respectable business along the main streets and thus became the preferred location of many vices. At this time the brothels on Franklin Ave seem to have only been run by White people, mostly women. By 1878 the Deseret News identified Franklin Ave as a “Bad Place” with “loose characters.”

The 1880s brought some Black people to the neighborhood. The first Black residents of Franklin Ave that I could find were Alice and Benjamin Nesbitt who resided there in 1884. Alice later became president of the Colored women’s Republican Club and worked to secure voting rights for Black women in Utah. The rooms and houses available for rent were owned primarily by White people; the most prominent owner being John Johnson who supplied rented housing and jobs to people on Franklin Ave.

Notably, many of the buildings were lacking in maintenance and sanitary conditions were atrocious. A sewer line was installed in 1888 but many of the older homes were never connected, and outhouses remained common. The street remained unpaved through this time, which is an important consideration of the sanitary conditions when coupled with lack of standardized garbage disposal, accumulation of animal waste, and the prevalence of coal burning stoves.

Franklin Ave in 1905. One of the earlier images showing the majority residential buildings.

By the time the first Black residents moved into Franklin Ave in the mid-1880s, the street was already a difficult neighborhood. Rents were probably cheap, but brothels and gambling dens were common.

Sanitary conditions were notably inadequate. The Salt Lake Herald complained for several years of the perpetual cesspool that existed on the southern end of Franklin Ave at 300 South; their 1888 article described it as a “slimy, green, stagnant pool [that] emits a very nauseating effluvia these warm days and is bound to make somebody sick…”

The 1890s saw a dramatic shift from White to Black residents, likely drawn by cheap rent. Some of this influx was due to the arrival of the 24th Infantry (Buffalo Soldiers) at Fort Douglas in 1896 with some of the Soldiers families living on Franklin Ave and some Soldiers choosing to stay in SLC after they were discharged from the Army.

The 1900 census shows all but one of the buildings on Franklin Ave were home to Black families, including Ella Phelps who, along with her husband James and son James Roscoe, ran a rooming house for other Black individuals at 249 Franklin Ave (now a parking lot). Notably the Phelps did not own their building.

The exception to Black residents was the Salvation Army’s Workingmen’s Hotel (which is now the Franklin Ave Theater building at 231 Edison- more on that later) which was occupied only by White men.

The Black population of SLC continued to increase, especially in and around Franklin Ave. Throughout the 1890s and early 1900s the Salt Lake Herald-Republican newspaper referred to the street as “Darktown.”

Many of the SLC Black organizations that exist today can trace their beginnings to the residents of Franklin Ave. Both Calvary Baptist Church and Trinity African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church began on Franklin Ave with the initial fundraising efforts and early church meetings.

In 1906, SLC changed the name of Franklin Ave to Edison St, largely to “rebrand” the street from Black residential to White commercial. The first White-owned business, Skelton Printing, moved into the Franklin Ave Theater building in 1906.

Throughout the next decade more business displaced the residents. The 1911 Sanborn Map indicates about half of the buildings on Franklin Ave/Edison St were residential, mostly on the southern half of the street. By 1926, the Sanborn Map shows no residential buildings.

Many of the displaced residents moved to the south end of the Central City neighborhood, mostly 400 South-900 South and Main St-500 East.

Edison Street (formerly Franklin Ave) in 1936, showing majority commercial buildings.

A note on Salt Lake's Black population:

In 1900, 278 Black people were recorded as living in SLC and in 1910 this increased to 737, most of whom (but not all) lived on or around Franklin Ave. The overall Black population in SLC was small during this time, only about 1% of SLC (even accounting for undercounting of the census).

• 1900: 278 black / 77,725 total SLC population = 0.4%
• 1910 737 black / 131,462 total SLC population = 0.6%

For comparison, the 2020 census records Utah's Black population as 2%

Sanborn Maps showing the transition of Franklin Ave to Edison Street, 1926-1950

Blue Houses = Residential Buildings

Red Shopping Cart = Commercial Buildings

.

An Antique Electro-Static Machine

An example of an Electro Static Machine. Insert in lower right corner is the Karrick Building.

An antique electro-static machine was found on the 2nd floor of the Karrick Block at 236 S Main SLC during its renovation in 2000.

The device was made by the Frank S. Betz Co., a well-known supplier of a variety of medical supplies and equipment.  These electro-static devices were in use from about the 1880s through the 1930s.

The Electro Static Machine found in the Karrick Building

When this particular machine was found by MHTN Architects, they contacted The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices (www.museumofquackery.com) in Minneapolis and David G. Rickert identified the machine as a Holtz, of which there were many varieties and were popular between 1890-1910.

Within the wood cabinet were large circular copper plates that would revolve and create static electricity.  According to historic advertisements and instructions, this electricity could be used to cure a multitude of ailments.

An example of an advertisement for a Holtz type machine.

Excerpt from medial book indicating how to use the machine

Prior to 1905, when Lewis Karrick died, the main occupant of the Karrick building was Roberts and Nelden Drugs, a large wholesale and retail pharmacy.  

Lewis Karrick operated a gambling and billiards hall on the second floor and a brothel with 8 rooms on the third.  A description from the late 1970s notes that the names of several women still remained on the doors (I did not find any further information about these names).

In 1908 the building was acquired by Mary Judge (of the Judge Building) and the ground floor leased to longtime occupant Leyson-Pearsall Jewelers.

It is unclear who owned this abandoned electro-static machine. The upper floors of the Karrick Block were leased to many people, including some doctors and dentists. 

Comments on my Instagram post indicate this machine is within the collections of the Utah Historical Society. 

Sources:

• Deseret News 2000-04-04
• USHS file Karrack Building
• Manual of Static Electricity in X-Ray and Therapeutic Uses by S.H. Monell M.D., 1900

Then and Now: The Rio Grande Depot

Then and Now: The Rio Grande Depot at 300 S. Rio Grande St, Salt Lake City.  

Then is ca. 1920-1930. It is a historic photo of the Rio Grande Depot from the Denver Public Library Special Collections (Number GB-5633). Now is from 2018 Google Streets View.

At the time of the photo, the building was known as The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Depot.

Note the trolly tracks in the foreground. Passengers disembarking from the Depot could then access Salt Lake’s large network of trolley lines in all directions.

The Skeleton in Grandpa's Barn

In 1923, a few schoolgirls found a box of human bones in the barn of the Lund family at 127 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City. The box of bones was an open secret known by many of the kids in the neighborhood.

Herbert Z. Lund Jr. recounts the story of these skeletal remains in a Utah Historical Quarterly article titled “The Skeleton in Grandpa’s Barn” (UHQ V35 N1 in 1967).

Herbert Jr. states that his father, Dr. Herbert Z. Lund Sr., was a physician at the Utah State Penitentiary (at what is now Sugar House Park) and acquired the body of J. J. Morris. Morris was executed in 1912 by hanging for murder; and, in accordance with common practice his body was donated for medical purposes.

Dr. Lund intended the body to become a teaching skeletal specimen. After the anatomical dissection was completed, Dr. Lund reduced the body to a skeleton. Part of the process to create a skeletal specimen is maceration so Dr. Lund and his friend William Willis (a druggist by profession) took the remains to an open area near Beck’s Hot Springs and boiled the remains in sulfur water and lime. The final process of bleaching the bones was never completed and the bones retained a rancid odor.

Dr. Lund placed the bones in a wooden box and stored them in the unused hayloft of his father’s barn, Anthon H. Lund’s house at 127 W. North Temple (now demolished).

Dr. Lund’s children (Anthon’s grandchildren) were aware of the skeletal remains and often found ways around the locked entry to view the bones. Even the grandchildren of the adjacent neighbor, LDS apostle Matthias F. Cowley, knew of the bones. So it is not surprising that other kids got into the barn to sneak a peak at the bones of a convicted murderer.

Around 1925, Dr. Lund’s mother, Sarah, demanded that the bones be buried to keep curious people away. Dr. Lund’s son, Herbert Jr, buried the remains behind the old barn. He and his grandmother Sarah had a little graveside service where Sarah read excerpts from the LDS publication “The Improvement Era” and placed the old magazines in the grave with the skeletal remains.

The gravesite was dug behind the barn. Sanborn maps show that this barn was demolished around 1950-1951. In the 1967 article, Herbert Jr. stated that the area of the grave was still open land but that development was happening all around.

Herbert Jr. drew a map of where he believed the gravesite to be. This location is now in an expanded parking lot of the old Travelodge Motel at 144 W. North Temple. It is unknown if construction has impacted the grave or if it is still intact below the asphalt parking lot.

One complication of this story is that there is a burial record for J.J. Morris in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, which contradicts the identity of the skeletal remains as being J.J. Morris. 

However, both the Lund family history and several 1920s newspaper articles (including an interview with Dr. Lund, himself) indicate that the skeleton in Grandpa’s barn is J.J. Morris.

The burial record for J.J. Morris indicates that he is buried along with 14 other prisoners whose remains were originally interred at the old Utah State Penitentiary, which is now Sugar House Park. These remains were disinterred from the Sugar House location in 1957 when the park was built. The remains were reinterred in a small prison cemetery at the Point of the Mountain Prison in Draper. In 1987, the remains were disinterred again and reinterred at the Salt Lake City Cemetery- with several remains (identified as cremains) interred in a single grave.

So if the cemetery record is to be believed (and with all those disinterment’s it is possible that records may have been compromised) then the remains buried behind the Grandpa’s barn are not those of J.J. Morris.

Utah executed several prisoners around the same time as J.J. Morris. It is possible that the identity of the skeleton in Grandpa’s barn is actually that of another prisoner whose remains were also donated to medical science around the same time. Potential candidates for this option include Harry Thorne executed Sept 26 1912 or Frank Romeo executed Feb 20 1913.

Utah Executions 1912-1913

• J.J. Morris, April 30 1912
• Jules C. E. Szirmay (Jules Zirmay), May 22 1912, Buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery
• Harry Thorne, Sept 26 1912, Body donated to medical science
• Thomas Riley, Oct 24 1912, Burred in Bluffdale City Cemetery
• Frank Romeo, Feb 20 1913, Body donated to medical science

Sources:

• “The Skeleton in Grandpa’s Barn” UHQ V35 N1,1967
• Ghosts of West Temple, Salt Lake County Archives
• "Ray Lund, Prison Doctor" by H Z (Zack) Lund (nd) from FamilySearch
• Salt Lake Tribune 1923-11-30
• Deseret News 923-11-30
• Ogden Standard Examiner 1923-11-30
• Salt Lake Telegram 1912-05-04
• Salt Lake Telegram 1912-04-30
• The Salt Lake Tribune 1980-06-19
• Various cemetery records from ancestry, names in stone, and find-a-grave

The Old Mill in Cottonwood Heights is often reported as haunted

The Old Mill, aka Granite Paper Mill, at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon

The Old Mill in Cottonwood Heights is often reported as haunted. People report shadowy figures, cold spots, odd lights, sounds of footprints, and voices. Several stories involve people and dogs who have died in fires, suicides, and curses.

These spooky stories are difficult to tie directly to its history. Located at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, it was built in 1883 by the Deseret News to make paper for the newspaper.

The 3-story structure is built of granite from the same quarry as the Salt Lake City LDS Temple. It contains a basement and a prominent 100-foot elevator tower.

At the time of its operation, the main floor housed a machine room, engine room, rotary boiler, and cutting room. The upper story of the building was used for sorting material (mostly straw and rags) and the basement contained drainers and agitators. Power to the mill came from water forced into three separate power wheels through a 50-inch floodgate.

Image from USHS

 

Image from USHS.

A massive fire broke out in 1893 and gutted the entire building causing major damage to the roof structure and the papermaking machinery. A stockpile of paper also went up in flames. Insurance only covered a fraction of the loss, which, combined with the economical efficiencies of wood-pulp paper industry resulted in the abandonment of the mill.

In 1927, it was converted to a resort clubhouse; a portion of the building was repaired with a new roof and the south wing remaining uncovered. The Old Mill Club was originally advertised as a prestigious destination with horseback riding through Big Cottonwood Canyon, nightly dancing (except Sunday), trapshooting at its gun club, and plans for an 18-hole golf course to be designed by famed golf course architect, William H. Tucker. Other future plans included banquet and dining rooms to be run by a chef of “interesting fame,” swimming pool, and a toboggan slide.

As an aside – some of the names given to the 18 horses of the riding club are reminiscent of the roaring 20s.

• Smokey
• Kernal
• Buster
• Sox
• Moonshine
• Budweiser
• Blaze
• Snip
• Red Bird
• Dan Patch
• Shorty
• Smiler
• King Tut
• Zane Grey
• Queen Ann
• Cleopatra
• White Cloud
• Arabian

The Old Mill Club was intended to rival Salt Lake City’s Country Club and provide restful relaxation and complete privacy to its members. It also hosted theme events such as “Chocolate Night” and “Tabernacle Choir Night” and “Halloween Night.”

The Old Mill, ca 1930, when it was a dance hall, Big Cottonwood Canyon. Image from USHS.

 

Dancing at the Old Mill. Image from USHS.

 

Advertisements from the Old Mill Club
Left: The Salt Lake Tribune 1930-10-27 p11
Right: The Bingham Bulletin 1927-08-04 p5

 

Interior of the Old Mill, 1967. From HABS No U-39, NPS.

 
John Basil Walker operated the Old Mill Club from 1927 to 1942. He also owned Walker Sand and Gravel which operated the gravel pit adjacent to the Old Mill at 6950 Wasatch Boulevard.

The Old Mill Club closed during WWII, but the property remained in the Walker family for several more decades. The building had many phases of being empty and being used as an entertainment venue, including being utilized as a haunted house in the 1970s-1990s. The building was condemned by Cottonwood Heights City in 2005.

It has also appeared in several movies including “SLC Punk,” “Team Alien/The Varrow Mission,” “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Meyers,” “Hereditary,” “Bleep” and “March of Dimes.”

I have included some scenes from "Team Alien/The Varrow Mission", which can be viewed on YouTube.

 

Scenes from "Team Alien/The Varrow Mission"

The Old Mill in 2012

Sources:

• Granite Paper Mill HABS No U-39, National Park Service
• Davis County Clipper 1893-04-06
• Deseret News 1884-10-15 p7
• Deseret News 1893-04-01 p2
• Salt Lake Tribune 1927-07-21 p9
• The Bingham Bulletin 1927-09-15 p5
• The Bingham Bulletin 1927-11-23 p7
• Salt Lake Tribune 1927-09-23 p9
• Salt Lake Tribune 1927-08-26 p17
• Deseret News 1927-12-09 p14
• Salt Lake Tribune 1973-10-28 p66
• A Directory of the Mining Industry of Utah 1965. University of Utah Bulletin 79

Historic Intermountain Casket Building at 276 W 100 South

Intermountain Casket Co. building, constructed by the Villadsen Brothers, 1920.
Located at 276 West 100 South, Salt Lake City. Image from USHS.

The historic Intermountain Casket Building (aka Struve Distribution Building) at 276 W 100 South, in Salt Lake's Japantown, was built in 1920.

As discussed in my previous post about the Midwest Casket Building, several casket manufacturers were in Salt Lake City during the 1910s and1920s and one of them was the Intermountain Casket Company.

Intermountain Casket Company building, 2024.
Located at 276 West 100 South, Salt Lake City. 

Intermountain Casket was founded in 1919 by Alma O. Taylor (son of “Pioneer Undertaker” Joseph E. Taylor) and Lafayette Holbrook (quite wealthy from mining and commercial endeavors, former mayor of Provo, and well-connected political and religious relationships).

Alma split from his brothers Samuel and Joseph W. Taylor’s Salt Lake Casket Company and formed his own competing operation. There must have been some Taylor family drama there, especially factoring in that "Pioneer Undertaker" Joseph E. Taylor practiced polygamy, which meant that Joseph W. was the first-born of the first wife and half-brother to Samuel and Alma who were both from the third wife.

As a new company, Intermountain Casket built a new and modern 3-story factory at the corner of 100 South and 300 West. Construction started in 1919 and it opened in January 1920. 

As an aside- The property of the Intermountain Casket Company building was purchased from Annette “Nettie” Eliza Amussen Evans, who inherited it from her father Carl Christian Amussen who was an early Mormon Pioneer, Utah’s first jeweler and wo built the Amussen Building originally located at 62 S Main Street in 1869. The facade of the Amussen Building was relocated during the construction of City Creek Center and is now within a pedestrian walkway south of Deseret Book at about 45 W South Temple.

 I mention this because I wondered why Intermountain Casket built in SLC's Japantown, which would have been very active in the 1920s and Intermountain Casket (unlike the Midwest Casket Co) seemed heavily affiliated with the LDS religion, so it seemed an odd choice of location. However, it seems as simple as it was a large lot with a small adobe home owned by a Mormon pioneer family; the adobe house was being rented out and, like today, a large lot was more valuable for building upon so it was available for purchase. The lot was split with the Intermountain Casket Co building on the west half at 276 W. 100 S. in 1920 and the Japanese Church of Christ building on east half at 268 W. 100 S. in 1924. 

Japanese Church of Christ adjacent to the Intermountain Casket Company (note sign).
Unknown date.  Image from USHS.

The 3-story Intermountain Casket building was constructed by the Villadsen Brothers, who had recently opened an office in Salt Lake City. The Villadsen Brothers were authorities on reinforced concrete and one of the biggest general contractors in the Western US. They also built the Ford Motor Company Service Building at 280 S. 400 West and the Continental Bank Building (Hotel Monaco) at 15 W 200 South, Salt Lake City. 

Villadsen Brothers advertisement. Deseret News 1920-07-12 p11.

The Intermountain Casket building is made of reinforced concrete frame and brick infill that was popular around the time of WWI. The insignia of the Intermountain Casket Company “cIc” can still be seen on the second level of the façade along 100 South.

Intermountain Casket Company insignia "cIc"

Intermountain was described as having “the finest casket display rooms west of Chicago.” They were a wholesale company supplying Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada.

In 1924, Intermountain Casket supplied 120 caskets for the victims of the Castle Gate Mine Disaster near Price, Utah.

Mass burial services for some of the Greek immigrants killed during the Castle Gate Mine explosion in 1924. Held in a hall at Castle Gate. Caskets supplied by Intermountain Casket Company in Salt Lake City.  Image from USHS.

Intermountain Casket closed business in 1943 with the company’s president Alma O. Taylor saying that WWII wartime restrictions had become too severe to manufacture caskets as ordered. He was quoted as saying “production of metal caskets and handles were ordered stopped by the war production board, a 50% reduction on silk for trimming was ordered, then the length was reduced, then came the limitation of styles, and with no priorities what can one do?”

These wartime restrictions were ordered by the War Production Board and included an order that steel could not be used for caskets so manufacturers switched to wood and concrete. I also found reference to “Order L-34 (caskets, shipping cases, and burial vaults)” which mandated reduction of length of certain percentage of caskets.

Consolidated Amusement purchased the building in 1943 and in addition to its own offices it also provided office space to a variety of other businesses.  Consolidated Amusement was known for jukeboxes. 

Consolidated Amusement 1945. Interior of the Intermountain Casket building.
Image from USHS.

The building in 1945, when it was the Consolidated Amusement Company.
Located at 276 West 100 South, Salt Lake City. Image from USHS.

Intermountain Casket Company building, 2024.
Located at 276 West 100 South, Salt Lake City. 

Struve Distributing Company purchased the building in 1966. They were known for pool tables, billiard supplies, and other amusement and tavern equipment. They closed 2011.

Struve Distributing Company advertising home pool tables.
From The Salt Lake Tribune 1967-12-16 p35. 

Struve Distributing Company advertising Elton John's Capt. Fantastic pinball machine.

From Marketplace Issue July 04 1976 (from International Arcade Museum)

Some comments on my Instagram post made reference to Real Ride Skatepark using the interior of the building (and all that concrete!) as a (private?) skatepark.   

Interior of the Intermountain Casket Company building, from LoopNet.

Interior of the Intermountain Casket Company building, from LoopNet.

Interior of the Intermountain Casket Company building, from LoopNet.

Currently the building is available for lease. It is located just east of the Delta Center and although not specifically identified for redevelopment, it is within the general area of the Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) redevelopment project.

Location of the building relevant to Japantown and Delta Center.

Sources:

• Goodwins Weekly 1924-08-23 p30
• Salt Lake Herald 1919-07-13 p23
• Salt Lake Herald 1919-06-11 p14
• SL Herald 1916-06-12 p7
• Salt Lake Herald 1919-07-13 p29
• Salt Lake Telegram 1924-03-10 p3
• Salt Lake Tribune 1943-02-11 p12
• 276 W 100 S USHS file
• Various Sanborn maps and FamilySearch data