Demolition of the Glendale Neighborhood Tejada's Market Building, the old Safeway mid-century modern building

Tejada's Market building, August 2024.
1179 Navajo Street, Salt Lake City, Utah

The old Tejada’s Market building at 1179 Navajo Street in the Glendale neighborhood has a demolition permit filed with Salt Lake City and will likely soon be demolished. Townhomes are planned to be constructed in its place.

This building opened in February 1967 as a Safeway. It advertised a large parking lot to accommodate 138 cars and modern construction of “tilt-up stone walls, laminated roof beams, and expansive glass front.”

The building was designed by William J. Monroe & Associates of Salt Lake City and the construction contractor was Horne-Zwick Construction Co.

It was a Safeway through the mid-1980s, was briefly a Famer Jack market about 1987, and became a Food World in the 1990s. Most recently, the building has been home to Supermercardo de las Americas and the Tejada’s Market.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune 1967-02-12 p51

Tejada's Market building, originally a Safeway. August 2024.

Even the original light posts are still present, August 2024.

Tejada's Market building, originally a Safeway. August 2024.

Grand opening of the Glendale Safeway.
From the Salt Lake Tribune 1967-02-12 p51

Book Review: The Gathering Place: An Illustrated History of Salt Lake City

The Gathering Place: An Illustrated History of Salt Lake City By John S McCormick

Review: Highly Recommended

Audience: Great for newcomers to SLC. Great for anyone, really.

Availability: Out of print. The SLC Public Library has 3 circulating copies. Used copies are available online for purchase.

This is a good unbiased overview of the history of Salt Lake City. What is great about this book is that it does not shy away from the cringy aspects of the past including impacts that Mormon settlers had on indigenous populations, slavery in the Utah Territory, and prejudices experienced by many minority populations. It treats the Mormon vs Non-Mormon aspects of SLC in a matter-of-fact manner with a powerful example of local religious influence involving the MX missile project of the 1980s. The book was published in 2000 and includes a good overview of then-current happenings but now recent history such as East High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance controversy, the purchase of a segment of Main Street by the LDS Church, and the Virgin Mary Tree on 700 South.

Abraham Mejia and SLC's First Mexican Restaurant

 Abraham Mejia ca 1900.
From Ancestry user KMejiaBeplay.

This is Abraham Mejia (1864-1927) who established Salt Lake's first Mexican restaurant (Mexican-owned serving Mexican food).

The Mejia family was one of the first Latino families to take up permanent residence in SLC.

Abraham was born in Veracruz, Mexico and in his twenties he immigrated to the U.S., first settling in Texas (where he married) and Arkansas (where he operated a tamale stand) before moving to SLC in 1903.

If you remember from one of my previous posts, Otto Branning (SLC’s Chili King) established a chili parlor in SLC in 1903. But Branning was from Indiana and was of German descent, so I don’t think he qualifies as the first Mexican restaurant in SLC.

An oral history collected by one of Abraham’s grandchildren states that Abraham Mejia and Otto Branning were initially friends, and it was Branning who suggested that Abraham and his family move to SLC. It was Abraham who taught Branning how to make chili and tamales but Branning ousted Abraham out of the business and they became competitors.

By 1904 Abraham was making a name for himself and operating a lunch stand in front of the St Elmo Hotel on Main Street. He was known for his chili-con-carne, tamales, and oyster cocktail. In 1907 he operated the Eagle Gate Café at 44 E 100 South where he “guarantees to serve nothing but genuine Mexican dishes, short orders and all kinds of sandwiches.”

Abraham worked in the restaurant business off and on throughout the remainder of his life. In addition to running restaurants, he also served as an interpreter for the SLC courts and honorary Mexican consul. He died at his home in SLC in 1927.

Sources: The History Blazer Aug 1996; Mejia family records on ancestry.com

Abraham Mejia’s restaurant in SLC, early 1900s, possibly on
Commercial Street (now Regent St). From Ancestry user KMejiaBeplay.

Advertisement for Abraham Mejia's restaurant. From 1909 SLC Directory.

Update Jan 2021: Check out this SLC History Minute about Abraham Mejia