Judge Building, Salt Lake City

1909 Postcard of the Judge Building, Salt Lake City.

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The Judge Building, 8 E 300 S SLC, built in 1907 by Mary Judge and designed by the Judge family architect David C. Dart who also designed the Judge Miner's Home, now part of Judge Memorial High School.

Mary and her husband John made their wealth primarily from the Daly-Judge Mine in the Park City Mining District. John died in 1892 and Mary took over business operations and invested in real estate.

She also contributed the establishment of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, YMCA, and All Hallows College.

Judge Building in 1908. Image from USHS.

Judge Building 1939. Image from USHS

Judge Building 2023

Vintage Postcards Showing Black Rock in the Great Salt Lake

More vintage postcards about the Great Salt Lake, these are specifically about Black Rock.

The first postcard is from the 1910s-1920s and the others are 1940s.

The second postcard is actually at Sunset Beach, which is just a smidge east of Black Rock. Sunset Beach is between Black Rock and the Great Salt Lake Marina.

And, as an FYI, the Great Salt Lake Marina is at Silver Sands Beach.

I didn’t realize until recently that we had named beaches

Vintage Postcards About the Great Salt Lake

“Greetings from the Great Salt Lake” is the topic of today’s #WestDesertWednesday

I like looking at old postcards to see how the landscape and people have changed. When looking at postcards about the Great Salt Lake there seems to have been quite a bit of human interaction with it in the past- both locals and tourists. Obviously, Salt Air was a hot spot but so was Black Rock (which I will post those images right after this one).

Now Black Rock is a lonely rock and is high and dry. The marina is unusable and all the boats have been pulled out. Those wood trestles of the Lucin Cutoff have been pulled out (and repurposed by a local).

And even the new Great Salt Air seems a lonely shadow of its past.

My guess is that most of these postcards are from the 1970s-1980s. The postcard showing the reading of newspapers in the lake is probably from the 1940s. And the new Great Saltair postcard appears to be from 1990s.

Source of images: personal collection and Ebay. 

The Vacudent Revolutionized Modern Dentistry

Vacudent Tempo Chair, advertising postcard, ca 1970s

Happy National Dentist’s Day and Women’s History Month!

This is an advertising postcard for the Vacudent dental chair ca. 1970s when the company was located at 471 W 500 South SLC.

The Vacudent was invented in the early 1950s by SLC dentist Dr. Elbert O. Thompson (1910-2003) who needed a way to alleviate his back pain from the way dentistry was previously performed. The Vacudent was the first reclining chair for dentistry that also included a suction device to remove fluids and debris from the patient’s mouth. He also created a low stool he modified from a beauty parlor chair which allowed him to sit while performing his dental procedures.

All combined, this system of dentistry is now the modern standard in dental offices. Compare this to when Dr. Thompson took his board certification at the old Utah State Prison (where Sugar House Park is now) in which he was supplied a large fruit jar as a spittoon and expected to work in dark conditions with little comfort paid to either the dentist or the patient.

The Vacudent was manufactured in SLC and sold internationally. Dr. Thompson’s friend and business partner, Louis N. Bagley founded the Vacudent Manufacturing Company in 1952 and initially started manufacturing in a chicken coop. Throughout the next few decades, the Vacudent Co moved from one facility to another, each being bigger than the last.

When Lou Bagley died in 1963 his widow Frances S. Bagley took over as president of the company, which continued to thrive. By 1973 the company was producing 15 models of dentist chairs and accessories, 10 models of stools, dental drill accessories, and suction equipment. Frances Bagley died in 1979 of cancer.

Frances S. Bagley, president of Vacudent Manufacturing Co 1960s-1970s

The Vacudent company remained a SLC small business with international sales through part of the 1980s. In 1984 the Vacudent Manufacturing Co was voluntarily dissolved.

Sources:

• Deseret News Sept 19 1964
• Deseret News Sept 29 1973
• Deseret News Aug 27 1964
• The Neighbor April 3 1963
• Salt Lake Tribune Jan 12 1964
• Salt Lake Tribune Jun 27 1979
• Oral History Elbert O Thompson RL478 No8 University of Michigan School of Dentistry, on YouTube https://youtu.be/9KH4rH6CIZ4

Utah's Division of Church and State

The "Mormon" Temple postcard, 1960

The Utah Legislature is wrapping up its 2022 session. So I’ll showcase Utah’s division of church and state with this 1960 postcard.

Gus wrote this postcard to his parents in 1960 on his way east to Colorado.  He says the Mormon Temple was really unusual.

Greetings from Salt Lake City 1939

Greetings from SLC, 1939!

Alice sent this postcard in 1939 on her way west to "Frisco." They would have likely driven US 40 and taken the Wendover Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake Desert. A lonely 2-lane road. Hope they made it safely to San Francisco.

Greetings from Salt Lake City postcard, dated 1939

I have rebooted my Twitter page @SLC_History. I think I will be posting little snippets of history there, probably lots of postcard images.

Don't like Twitter, no worries as I will post here as well. 

Colonial Flower House Vintage Postcard

Colonial Flower House, Salt Lake's nicest flower shop, ca 1940s..
870 E 900 South Salt Lake City

Colonial Flower House was located at 870 E 900 South SLC. It was started about 1933 by Mort Jorgensen (1900-1975), a Danish Immigrant who came to Salt Lake City in 1920. Colonial Flower was in business at this location until 1973.

Mort, who also owned Dimple Dell Nursery, built and ran several greenhouses in the Salt Lake area.

Notably, he arranged the flowers for the funeral of LDS President Heber J Grant in 1945.

He also helped establish the Danish Garden at Salt Lake’s International Peace Gardens.

This building was originally a house built by James M. Michelson in 1907, similar to other buildings along this stretch of the 9th and 9th neighborhood, which have also been transformed from residential to commercial spaces.

The current inhabitants of the building are 9th and 9th Jewelers, 9th and 9th Book and Music, and Summit Sotheby's Realty. 

Advertizement for Colonial Flower from Deseret News Mar 21 1940

The Colonial Flower building as it is today, 2022

The Colonial Flower building as it is today, 2022

The surrounding buildings in this section of 9th and 9th (southeast quadrant), 2022.