Blog Update April - July

Massive update to the blog. Here are some of the posts from my Instagram account. @rachels_slc_history

A computer crash, new laptop, data restored from backup, and a RTO mandate.  I've been a bit busy.

However, I need to do better at keeping this updated.

I was recently honored to be part of the Salt Lake Ctiy Weekly, City Guide 2023, along with some other amazing people and organizations. Thanks, City Weekly!

Walking Tour of SLC's Unseen History - University of Utah Lifelong Learning

Join me in April for my tour of Salt Lake City's unseen history. This is a 2 day class (Saturdays) through the University of Utah Lifelong Learning program.

This class focuses on SLC's multi-cultural neighborhoods, specifically the Black American
neighborhoods of Central City and Franklin Avenue (now Edison St) in downtown Salt Lake.

The class is open to everyone, you do not need to be a U of U student.

 Click Here

Check me out on the Beehive Archive!

I recently partnered with Utah Humanities Beehive Archive for Halloween 2022 to tell the story of City Creek's Witch's Cabin!  It's really Brigham Young's old Empire Mill and the home of the Samuel J. Sudbury family.

I provided the Beehive Archive with my material and they transformed it into a 2 m2-minute podcast and an associated webpage, how neat!

Head over the Beehive Archive to listen to their City Creek Witch's Cabin episode: https://www.utahhumanities.org/stories/items/show/449

You can read my original post on the Witches Cabin here.

Spooky Salt Lake City History

October is here and that means spooky Salt Lake City history.  check out the hashtag #spookyslc to find all my haunted history stories. 

Utah Preservation Conference 2022 Presentation

Wendi from @demolishedsaltlakepodcast and I gave a presentation at the 2022 Utah Preservation Conference.  The presentation can be downloaded here. 

Women's History on KRCL's Radioactive

I was on KRCL’s Radioactive program a few days ago.

Alice Burch and I talked about some of our favorite Black women from Utah’s past and about the Black history organization we are a part of, the Sema Hadithi Foundation.

Alice is wonderful and she gives some great insight into the lives of the women.

Listen here: https://krcl.org/blog/radioactive-032222/

An introduction

Hey all! I thought I should finally introduce myself. I’ve been off social media for a while tending to seed starts for my garden and giving myself a little mental break.

So, about me:

I’m an archaeologist who works in the West Desert, but I typically don’t spend much time in the field anymore as my duties are more about management and interacting with leadership.

I live near downtown SLC in District 4. I own a small house on a small lot with my family. We don’t have any grass and both our front and back yards are garden. We grow a variety of squashes, tomatoes, and death peppers.

I used to hate history class and thought it was so boring to memorize dates of military battles and the basic facts of only certain types of people.

My first archaeological project was while I was a student at the University of Utah. I helped with the mitigation excavation of Fort Douglas in preparation for the construction of the 2002 Olympic Village, now student housing.

It was through archaeology that I realized we could see into the lives of people who were not in the history books, such as the women who worked along Laundress Row at Fort Douglas in the 1890s.

I tend to focus on everyday people of SLC’s past and try to revive the stories and circumstances that have been forgotten.

I’ve been researching and writing about SLC history for over a decade and I’ve come across some interesting stories that I can write up.

Comment below if you have a specific interest.

I've rebooted my Twitter account! @slc_history

Find me on Twitter @slc_history

I've rebooted my Twitter account! @slc_history

I will be sharing some vintage postcards and other fun images. I may not always crosspost but you can always find all my content on my website.

Thus far, you can find me at: 

• Instagram: @rachels_slc_history
• https://www.instagram.com/rachels_slc_history/ 
• Twitter @slc_history
• https://twitter.com/SLC_History
• Website
• www.slchistory.org 

Belonging In Utah: Black History on KUTV

 Jamie, me, and Alice walking and talking on Franklin Ave, now Edison St, 2022.

Yesterday, KUTV aired Jamie McGriff's interview with Alice Burch and myself as part of her Belonging In Utah series. 

Click here for a direct link to the news clip and web extras.

We are part of the Sema Hadithi Foundation focused on telling the story of Black history in Utah. Alice is the Director of Special Events while I am a researcher for the Black Women's group.

P.S.: Sema Hadithi is active on Facebook. Check them out.

News clippings from the Salt Lake Herald Republican Sept 7 1906. Highlights are mine.
Link to the original news article.

News clippings from the Salt Lake Herald Republican Sept 7 1906. Highlights are mine.
Link to the original news article.

One of the few remaining buildings still standing from the Franklin Ave days, 235 S Edison St.
As pictured here it is the Salvation Army's Wokmen's Hotel but was originally built as the Franklin Ave Theater.

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.

Best of Utah 2021: Best Trip Down Memory Lane

So this just happened...

I am amazed by my presence on this amazing list. Thank you Salt Lake City Weekly! And congrats to everyone on the list

Native American Heritage Month Preview

November is Native American Heritage Month and there are so many stories to tell about Utah’s indigenous people- how they have been treated in the past and present, how they have served in the military for hundreds of years (including a special unit at Fort Douglas), food heritage, notable leaders, technology, traditional sports and games (including modern tournaments), and so much more.

“Gathering” by Diné (Navajo) artist Jack To'baahe Gene (Raymond Gene Jr.), 1980.
From the National Museum of the American Indian collections.

This year I would like to tell some stories about the people who lived in the Salt Lake Valley well before the Mormon pioneers arrived in 1847. Hopefully, these stories will help illustrate that when Brigham Young arrived it was not an empty valley, and indications of a long and rich indigenous culture were- and are -all around.

Native American Boarding Schools have been in the news lately and Utah certainly was a part of this history. Utah had 6 Native American boarding schools with the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City (formerly the Bushnell Army Hospital) being one of the largest in the U.S. and was one of the last to close, in 1984.

I will probably not get into any of these stories about the boarding schools but there is a good 2-part documentary produced by @pbsutah called “Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools.”

I also highly recommend @pbsutah’s 5-part series about the 5 Native Tribes of Utah, “We Shall Remain.” This series is great because it mostly talks about the current conditions that our local Tribes face.

My next series of posts will be about the archaeological remains of SLC’s first population. My next post will be about why there is that terrible representation of an “arrowhead” at the Arena TRAX station on South Temple St in downtown SLC.


Direct links to the documentaries are here:

• Unspoken: America’s Native American Boarding Schools: 
• We Shall Remain: 

SLC Council Candidates and their Views on Historic Preservation

SLC Council Ballots have gone out, so I thought I would gather some publicly available data for your consideration. No spooky stories today.

Chart of Salt Lake City Council candidates (2021)
and their views on historic preservation. 

A couple of years back a volunteer door-to-door campaign supporter for the SLC mayoral election asked me about the local issues important to me and I answered I was concerned with historic preservation. Her response was “I’ve never heard anything about that.”

I would hope that in the last 2 years that at least some of the candidates would take notice of the increased demolition of historic spaces.

This simple analysis clearly does not take into account the multitude of issues facing SLC. Candidates and voters value certain issues over others and decisions are made with those trade-offs in mind.

However, I do believe that historic preservation is intertwined with many of the most pressing issues facing SLC government such as housing affordability, distribution of density, homelessness, open/green space, sustainable growth, and environmental sustainability.

This chart is compiled from publicly available sources and shows which candidates acknowledge historic preservation as an issue. To receive a “Yes” the candidate needed to specifically mention historic spaces or preservation, not simply a vague characterization of preserving neighborhood character as that is too open to interpretation.

You can judge for yourself the effectiveness/sincerity/value of their approaches and their record on the issue.

SLC Council District Maps

Cucumbers and Zucchini

My garden is overflowing with cucumbers and zucchini.  After looking on the internet for creative recipes it got me thinking about past ways people prepared these items. 

It turns out, unlike cucumbers, zucchini is a rather recent addition to American gardens.  Originally brought over by Italian immigrants in the 1910s it was commonly known as Italian Squash for a while (Zucchini being too weird a word, I suppose) and was considered an ethnic curiosity to those not of Italian heritage.  

After WWI, Italian foods in America became less stigmatized and more integrated into domestic American gardens and products. Refer to my post about Antonio Ferro, SLC’s Pasta King who saw booming times after WWI and started publishing recipes in local newspapers on how Utahans could prepare spaghetti noodles.

I was even surprised to see that zucchini bread didn’t make it into the American recipe book until the 1970s.   

Since zucchini is a relative newcomer, these older recipes focus on cucumbers.  I also chose not to include any dill or sweet pickle recipes since those are still common today.

Personally, I’m planning on making a spicy pickled relish sometime soon. 

Spanish Fork Press 1910-07-28

 Ogden Evening Standard 1911-07-29

Carbon County News 1914-08-27

 Ogden Daily Standard 1916-03-25

Emery County Progress 1916-07-01

Salt Lake Tribune 1924-09-28

Salt Lake Telegram 1937-09-10

Springville Herald 1964-02-27

 Salt Lake Tribune 1924-09-28

Updates on Some Historic Demolition Projects

A few updates on some of Salt Lake City's historic demolition projects:

1. Demolition has recently begun at the historic English Lutheran Church that was formerly Ichiban Sushi (336 S 400 East). Given the care taken thus far it may indicate some architectural salvage is occurring. The Victorian house previously used as an office building located just to the north has not yet been impacted.

2. Selective demolition around the historic Utah Pickle Factory and Bissinger Hide buildings (737-741 S 400 West) has recently been completed. The Friendship Inns Supply building and some of the additions around the Hide building were demolished.

3. The new Sola37 Apartments that replaced the historic Morrison Brothers Duplex (435 S 400 East) is nearing completion.

I’m sure there are updates to other projects so if you know of any leave a comment. (There are just too many for me to keep up with)

Demolition of the Last Remaining Building from “the Stockade”

Citizen Investment Co building at
540 W 200 South SLC, June 2021.

This building at 540 W 200 South will be demolished as part of the Cinq Apartments, the same construction project that plans to preserve most of the nearby Central Warehouse building (see previous post).

This unassuming building has a sordid history and is the last remaining building from “the Stockade,” Salt Lake’s officially sanctioned red-light district built and managed in 1908 by Dora Topham, aka the Madame Belle London. 

The building is named the Citizens Investment Co building because that was the legal entity that was established by Dora Topham to purchase the land, build the stockade, and manage other matters.

There are a lot of stories associated with this building and plot of land.  Before this building was constructed in 1908 it was the location of George W. Boyd’s adobe house- he built Boyd’s Pony Express Station in Utah’s West Desert, which remains today as one of the best-preserved Pony Express Sites.  George was a Mormon polygamist with 3 wives and 15 children. 

Exploring how Boyd’s property and the surrounding blocks morphed from small Mormon Pioneer adobe houses into GreekTown should be interesting.

This also seems to be a good time to explore the life of Dora Topham; she made quite the impact in Ogden but was only in SLC a few years.  Plus, she is the namesake for London Belle Supper Club.

And then there is the red-light district itself. What did it look like (and smell like?) and what was it like for the women who lived and worked there.  What did GreekTown think of their new neighbors? 

What other things interest you about this property and the stories around it? Maybe I will find out for you during my deep dive and share more interesting stories about SLC’s past.

There will likely be a few interesting posts to come out of this topic so stick around.

In the meantime, swipe to read the historical marker attached the building. I always stop and read the plaque!

Happy Juneteenth & Intro to Sema Hadithi Foundation

Happy Juneteenth (the first Federally official Juneteenth)!

Today I would like to highlight a new non-profit organization that I am a part of:

The Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation.

The group was founded last year by Robert Burch and recently obtained official 501(c)(3) status. We are partnering with the Utah Division of State History and other organizations to help preserve and tell the story of African Americans in Utah.

Give them a follow on Facebook: Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation. 

I am part of the Black Women Research Group which highlights amazing stories, some of which I have shared here. 

But there are so many other stories that others have compiled including a history of the celebration of Emancipation Day, Black women social clubs, the Black church in Utah, stories and illustrations of Buffalo Soldiers in Utah, and lynching of Black men in Utah.

I’m still working on a number of stories for this group and hopefully you will see more of them soon:

• Frankie McMonnas (? – 1902) and her niece Frances Worfork (1879-1945). Frankie’s occupation on the 1900 census is listed as Nurse and Frances lists hers as School Teacher… Intriguing, hopefully I can learn more about these women.
• Ella Louise DeBies (1889-1985): “A lady really had to work for a living in those days” but she was able to send her son to the U of U in the 1920s.
• Colored Women want ads- classified advertisements of people looking to hire Colored Women, generally for domestic housework tasks. And Colored Women looking for people to hire them.
• Restaurants where Black people were allowed to eat in SLC. So far I have the St Louis Hotel and Café, Black Elks Club, and some Asian owned cafes. (Anyone know of anything specific and I will add it to my list).
• More short but intriguing stories from the Interviews with African Americans in Utah Oral History Collection at Special Collections, Marriott Library.
  
  
  

Kick off to SLC History Pride Month

LGBT Salt Lake by J. Seth Anderson

LGBT Salt Lake by J. Seth Anderson, 2017, is a great book to check out for Pride Month.

The book is readily available at bookstores, online, and even the Salt Lake City Public Library has a copy (available for check out as of this posting!)

The book has lots of color photographs and a good overview of LGBT+ history in SLC.

This month I will be posting some history tidbits highlighted in this book.

I've always been curious about the history of the Sacred Light of Christ Church at 823 S 600 East so I'll probably be digging into that.

And the history of the building Ruby Snap currently inhabits is super interesting too.

More to come!

A Visual Conception of SLC's Past

Rachel's conception of SLC's past, portrayed as a layer cake

I tend to think that we are living in SLC Version 5.0, or somewhere thereabouts.

This is an extreme oversimplification of the history of the SLC area, but it allows my inner archaeologist to conceive of SLC in a layer cake fashion with the different versions of the city built on top of one another.

In my mind:Version 1.0 is all human history prior to the Mormons arrival in 1847. The indigenous history as well as the explorers and the trappers. The key is that for SLC, everything drastically changed with the arrival of Brigham Young.

Version 2.0 is Brigham Young’s kingdom of early Mormon pioneers with their log cabins, adobe houses, and extensive farmland.

Version 3.0 is the urban building boom of the 1890s through the 1920s (give or take a decade). This is when a lot of the buildings we now consider “historic” were built. In reality, these now historic buildings replaced older SLC historic landmarks. The demolition of Valley House in 1915 is a good example of this.

Version 4.0 is the post WWII redevelopment phase. This is when SLC abandoned the streetcars in favor of automobiles. Large shopping areas with large parking lots like Sears (and later suburban malls) pulled people away from downtown SLC. Designed suburban neighborhoods with front facing garages were built to cater to the [White] WWII veteran and his growing baby boomer family- Rose Park and Veteran Heights neighborhoods come to mind.

Version 5.0 is all the new construction currently being built. I give you 400 South, for example.

Of course, sometimes V1.0 pops up, like when part of a Fremont-age archaeological site was discovered during the construction of TRAX on South Temple in 2000.

Or V2.0 survives long enough to be replaced immediately by V5.0 as was the case with the recent demolition of the John B. Kelley adobe house on 200 West.

Anyway, that’s how I think about SLC.