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

Christmas at Bonneville Tower 1968

Happy mid-century modern Christmas! This lovely (and lonely) aluminum tree highlighted the lobby of the Bonneville Tower in December 1968 (Images 1-2).

Bonneville Tower lobby in Dec 1968, taken by Salt Lake Tribune staff, image from UDSH.
(Colorization done by me with photoshop, I'm still learning)

Bonneville Tower lobby in Dec 1968, taken by Salt Lake Tribune staff, image from UDSH. 

1968 was a tough year for Bonneville Tower (Image 3) located at 777 E South Temple. The 15-story, 116-unit, building was completed in 1965 and was the first high-rise on South Temple. At the time, it was the highest mortgage in Utah backed by the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), a cost of $4.1 million (~$37M today).

Bonneville Tower in December 1968, taken by Salt Lake Tribune staff, image from UDSH

The Bonneville was built as a luxury apartment building to serve the new petroleum and space industries in Utah, which soon fizzled. The building featured an impressive entryway with a circular drive and a fountain with five water changes and lighting effects. The lobby featured wool carpets custom loomed in England, black and gold Italian marble walls, and an imported crystal chandelier.

High-speed elevators, electric security doors, community pool, garbage shutes, on-site laundry facilities, parking garage, all-electrical kitchens, individual heating/cooling controls for each apartment, bathrooms with marble walls, and garden terraces all added to the luxury living.

However, the demand for luxury housing was overestimated and in Dec 1966 only 32 apartments were rented, so the FHA foreclosed on the property.

A few months later in 1967, furniture from the model apartment units was repossessed by Town & Country Home Furnishings and resold (Image 4). These luxury furnishings included some mid-century modern pieces such as an apricot velvet lounge chair, medallion drum table, white selig chairs, lipstick selig sofa, red velvet love seat, green globe lounge chair, round pedestal table and 4 chairs, and electric crystal candelabra.

Furniture repossession advertisement,
from Salt Lake Tribune 1967-02-11

 
In 1968, when the above Christmas photo was taken, Bonneville Tower was operating at a loss with only half of the units occupied; monthly rents ranged from $160-$285 ($1,300-$2,300 today).

In Sept 1971 the FHA sold the Bonneville at auction. In 1974 the building was converted to condominiums.

Today, the lobby still has many of the same original features (Image 5).

Bonneville Tower lobby today, from their website

Images 6-7 are local advertisements for aluminum trees in 1959 and 1961, just for fun.

Aluminum tree advertisement, from Ogden Standard Examiner 1959-12-03

Aluminum tree advertisement, from Ogden Standard Examiner 1961-11-08

Sources:
Deseret News 1964-06-26L; Lehi Free Press 1964-07-02; Salt Lake Tribune 1966-12-21; Salt Lake Tribune 1968-12-29; Utah Division of State History (UDSH) site file.

Additional Update:

• DEVELOPER: W K Murphy and C. E. LaBree (President) of Artcol Corporation of Southern California;
• ARCHITECTS: M.E. Harris Jr. of SLC and Harold A Carlson of Los Angeles;
• BUILDER: Alfred T. Brown of SLC. Groundbreaking in June 1964. Completed 1965;
• SISTER BUILDING: Sunset Tower (now Hightower Apts) on 40 S 900 East, the first of three to be built. The third was the Plaza Tower which was to be located on the northeast corner of South Temple and A Street but was never built.

Update on the Ghost Sign at 1480 S State

The old Pappy's Pawn at 1480 S State as it is today, Dec 6 2021.

An update on the old ghost sign uncovered at the now-closed Pappy’s Pawn at 1480 SState, Salt Lake City.:

As of this morning (6 Dec 2021), the stucco has been repaired and painted red, meaning that the recently uncovered sign is now hidden again behind the stucco (see the previous post).

 

The old Pappy's Pawn at 1480 S State as it is today, Dec 6 2021.
Note the lack of seagull statues on top of the pawn sign.

Also note that the existing sign no longer has the seagulls, which we learned from @handysixdeuce that the seagulls were originally part of a massive art installation at the now-demolished Prudential Federal Savings building previously located at 115 S Main Street SLC and is now the site of the Eccles Theater. 

I'm not sure if Pappy took the seagulls with him or if the new owners have them. I just hope they didn't end up in the trash.

Here are some interesting articles about the art and architecture of the Prudential Building, the 2014 demolition of the building, and the promise of SLC to reincorporate the seagulls into the Eccles Theater - which has not happened.

• Salt Lake Tribune archive article about the removal of the seagull art installation: https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=57977106&itype=CMSID
• Mid-Century-Modern Daily's article on the Prudential Federal Savings building https://www.mcmdaily.com/salt-lake-city-prudential-building/ 

Of note, the Prudential Building was designed by architect William Pereira who is best known for designing San Francisco's iconic Transamerica Pyramid.

The seagull piece was named "The Gulls of Salt Lake City" and was created by California artist Tom Van Sant with the aid of master welder Timothy E. Smith. It consisted of 100 gulls attached to three stainless steel rods, 120 feet long, held in tension between the roof and a sunken garden below street level. A cricket was placed at the top of the sculpture.

Prudential building and seagull sculpture in the 1960s.
From Utah Division of State History site file.

Prudential building and seagull sculpture in the 1960s.
From Utah Division of State History site file.

Demolition of the Prudential Building

The last bit of the Prudential Building before it is completely demolished. Located at 115 S Main Street in Salt Lake City, it was built in 1963 and designed by William L. Pereira who is also known for the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.