Rachel's SLC History: HLC

Showing posts with label HLC. Show all posts

31 March 2024

Unauthorized demolition of the historic 5th Ward Meetinghouse on Easter Sunday

5th Ward Meetinghouse, March 31 2024. Photo by author.

Unauthorized demolition of the historic 5th Ward Meetinghouse, 740 S 300 West, Salt Lake City.

Demolition began today, Easter Sunday, (March 31), and today Salt Lake City government issued a stop work order. Most of the building still stands but a portion of the front has been demolished.

To be clear, it was the Salt Lake City government that stopped the demolition. City staff issued the stop work order and I'm being told at least one City Council member is asking for a more extensive review of permits.

There is a bigger issue here: this building is listed as a Local Historic Landmark site. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places, but that designation does not give it any historic protection. It is the Local Register status that gives the building additional zoning (History overlay) that requires a Certificate of Appropriateness and review by the SLC Historic Landmark Commission… which was not done.

All this on Easter weekend.

The building began as an LDS meetinghouse in 1910 but most of its history has been that of a multicultural community building, including that one time the band Nirvana stopped by in 1991 for a little show while it was the Pompadour Rock & Roll Club.

The future of the building is uncertain. Check out this interview I gave with Fox13 Spencer Joseph.

5th Ward Meetinghouse, March 31 2024. Photo by author.

5th Ward Meetinghouse from Google Street View 2021

05 December 2022

Salt Lake City in 1962

As usual, while looking for information on something specific I find something else interesting!

Check out these photos from 1962 of SLC. They are a part of the Edmund L. Mitchell collection at the Boston Public Library (link below).

A few of these images are relevant to changes recently announced, and others are just neat to look at.

Beehive House 1962. The LDS Church has recently announced that it plans to renovate the Beehive House, Lion House, and Joseph Smith Memorial Building (old Hotel Utah) in 2023. Per the Church News website, plans are to address structural deficiencies and preservation of aging finishes. As these buildings are local historic landmarks, the SLC Historic Landmark Commission will provide oversite.

Boy Scouts logo in flowers and grass 1962. The LDS Church announced plans to demolish the Boy Scouts building at 525 Foothill Dr. No specific plans for what will replace the building.

South Main Street 1962. I like this image because it shows a walkable downtown and a good view of a historic (now removed) Sanitary Drinking Fountain that was installed in the 1910s (White pillar-looking thing) and a Fire Call Box (Red pillar thing) behind the guy in the forefront.

Detail on fountain and fire call box.

View from State Capitol 1962. This image shows the rebuilding of the historic Salt Lake City Council Hall (now Utah Tourism Office), which was relocated when the Wallace F. Bennett building was constructed. Also, check out that wasted water!

View from State Capitol 1962. Cool looking bus and a nice array of cars.

Direct Link to SLC portion of the Edmund L Mitchell Collection at Boston Public Library: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?f%5Bname_facet_ssim%5D%5B%5D=Mitchell%2C+Edmund+L.%2C+1905-1981&f%5Bsubject_geographic_sim%5D%5B%5D=Salt+Lake+City

03 September 2021

House at 235 South 600 East Salt Lake City

235 South 600 East Salt Lake City

This house at 235 S 600 East will be getting some much-needed love and attention. Yesterday (2 Sept 2021) the SLC Historic Landmark Commission (HLC) approved the current owner’s plans to add an addition to the back of the house and move forward with repairs and historic rehabilitation for the rest of the house. Because it is in the Central City local historic district any modifications must be made in consultation with the HLC to ensure they are appropriate.

The house was initially built sometime in the 1880s. The first occupant I could find was Dr. Lorin Hall, the SLC Physician, who lived in the house with his family between about 1887-1893. A funny story relating to his time in the house pertains to Dr Hall trying to grow grass in the front yard for nearly a year when his neighbor’s cow got loose, opened the gate with one of her horns, and walked into his front yard to munch and trample the grass.

Hiram Johnson owned the house between about 1895 and 1900. While in SLC Hiram ran a wholesale grocery business and served on the SLC school board. Of note, his obituary states that as a young man he was a follower of the abolitionist John Brown and part of the militant actions in Kansas prior to the Civil War (John Brown was portrayed by actor Ethan Hawke in the 2020 miniseries @thegoodlordbird).

The next significant occupant was Charles S. and Florence Varian who owned and lived in the house between 1908-1927. Charles was a US Attorney who, during the Utah Territorial days, vigorously prosecuted polygamists making him quite hated among the Mormons of SLC. He was booed by Mormon women in the Tabernacle and in 1885 when living in a townhouse (called Reggels Row) his home was bombarded with jars of feces, breaking the front window and splattering the filth throughout the parlor. By the time he moved into this house the days of polygamy were mostly over and he was largely respected by Mormon and Non-Mormons alike.

After the Varians died the house was sold and converted to apartments. A 1980 historic survey of the house listed it in good condition. A 1992 sales advertisement stated it needed some work. The house seems to have been in decline since the 1990s.

Sources:
SL Democrat 1885-09-14; Des News 1888-07-03; SL Herald 1900-05-06; SL Trib 1908-05-13; SL Trib 1992-09-07; Sanborn maps, various records on Ancestry.com; HLC staff memo.

235 S 600 East in 1980. Image from HLC staff memo.

235 S 600 East about 1935. Image from HLC staff memo.

07 April 2021

Elks Club Block Redevelopment Proposal

Elks Club building, 2021. Located at 139 E South Temple.

The Elks Clubhouse at 139 E South Temple will soon undergo a renovation in which most of the building will be preserved and adaptively reused.

The proposal calls for a new building on the east parking lot, rehab the Elks Club, rehab of 6 houses on 1st Ave, and demolition of 1 house on 1st Ave.

As these buildings are within the local Avenues Historic District this proposal will come before the SLC Historic Landmark Commission (HLC), likely on May 6 2021, at which time public comment will be received. Details of the current proposal are on the SLC HLC’s website.

The Elks Club was built in 1923 for Lodge No 85 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The Elks were established in 1868 (1888 in SLC) and until relatively recently, restricted its membership to White males. Black males could join after 1972 and women could join after 1995.

This Elks Club on South Temple was the largest clubhouse ever built in Utah. It was designed by Scott & Welsh who also designed the Masonic Temple. It is made of red brick with cream terra cotta trim. Originally, it was 5 stories tall, not including the basement. The glass roof addition was added in the 1970s.

The original clubhouse was ornately designed with a marble finished lobby and gold leaf ceiling. The clubhouse also had sleeping quarters, library, billiard and card room, dining hall, kitchen, and a large auditorium with a collapsible stage. Large paintings of northern Utah’s Lake Mary and southern Utah’s Natural Bridges adorned the lodge room.

The main entrance was accessed through an elaborate exterior staircase. The Roman arch tunnel between the building and sidewalk leads to the basement, which housed the gymnasium at one point.

The current proposal will remove the staircase and tunnel and will expose the now-buried basement, which will then become the main entrance.

A similar proposal to remove the front stairs and tunnel was sought by a different organization in 2010 and was not approved by the SLC HLC. As such, they now remain intact (at least for now).