Demolition of Salt Lake City Sears

I have been monitoring the progress of the demolition of the old Sears building at 754 S State Street in downtown Salt Lake City.  

This clip is of the last section to be demolished, the part of the building adjacent to State Street.  I filmed it on the morning of Friday, November 18, 2022. This was before the taco carts were set up and they were not present when this event happened.  

I have a few other posts about the Sears building.  

• The history of the Sears building, including information about the murals. Read that post here.
• A group of us had permission to enter the old Sears building during the asbestos remediation (before demolition) to look for the old murals and see if they were still there, and if they were if they could be preserved.  They had been removed at least 30 years ago, so no murals were damaged during the current demolition process.  Read about that post here. 

Demolition of the Sears Building at 754 S State Street in Salt Lake City. This is the last section, adjacent to State Street. This occurred on the morning of Friday, Nov 18, 2022. No taco carts were harmed or present.

YouTube direct link: https://youtu.be/OfpxLox2FFc

Sears Building Exploration

Sales floor, ground floor, Sears Salt Lake City

The Sears on 800 S and State St is being demolished so now is probably the time to remember back to June when some other brave preservationists and I went looking for the historic murals that might have been inside (they were previously removed many years before - more on that in my next Sears post).So, enjoy an inside peek into the old Sears building. 

I'm sure you will recognize the sales floor. But if you always took the escalator you may have missed the nice wood banisters in the staircases at the edges of the sales floor.

The more interesting parts to explore were those not normally seen by the public, especially the utilities, the service elevator, and the areas used by staff.

The executive offices were outfitted with wood paneling and shag carpet. And yes, the last pic is of an enclosed toilet in a yellow room, apparently, someone decided a private bathroom was no longer needed.

We also found an unusual picture of a flock of seagulls; initially, I thought this might be some kind of mural (not the ones we were looking for) but it turned out to be made of plastic. Still kinda cool though.

(Note, we had secured permission to enter and explore).

Demolition of Broadway Place, 211 East 300 South

A demolition permit has been filed with SLC for the Broadway Place building at 211 East 300 South and will soon be replaced with a 31-story residential high rise tentatively titled “Convexity Tower” built by Worthington.

Broadway Place, 211 E 300 South, 2021

Broadway Place, 211 E 300 South, 2021

This mid-century modern building was constructed in 1950 to be Bettilyon’s Realtors new headquarters and to house other local businesses.

When originally constructed, this two-story building contained 30 suites of offices- 10 on the main floor and 20 on the second floor, plus a basement for storage. As with other post-WWII commercial buildings (the Sears block on 800 South and State, for example) this building boasted air conditioning and plenty of parking.

Bettilyon’s occupied the prominent corner at 200 East and 300 South which featured a large sign with their name.

Some of the other early occupants of the building include:

• Shaw Inc Realtor
• Capson Investment Co
• Marvells subzero freezer and food plan
• National Tile
• Utah Mothers Unite to Protect Constitution (an anti-Korean War group)
• Benefit Life Insurance Co
• Marchant Calculating Machine Company
• Union Oil Company of California, Salt Lake District
• Air-Flo Company

Source: Deseret News 1950-11-12

Interior of Bettilyon Building, 1952. From UDSH.

Bettilyon Building, 201-221 E 300 South, 1950. From UDSH.

Bettilyon Building, 201-221 E 300 South, 1952. From UDSH.

Interior of Bettilyon Building, 1952. From UDSH.

Interior of Bettilyon Building, 1952. From UDSH

Advertisement from SL Telegram 1950-12-15

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.

Large Murals and Other Attractions Were Once Inside the Sears Building

Various views of the Sears building today, May 2020.

The old Sears building at 754 S. State is on the demolition list.

Plans for the Sears building started in 1944 when Sears-Roebuck Co purchased about 6 acres of land, most of which was previously a baseball park (Cooley Park, then Lucas Field) where the SLC Skyscrapers played between 1911-1914.

Construction did not begin until after WWII ended, when materials and labor were available. The new store opened July 1947. The SLC mayor cut the ceremonial ribbon and more than 20K people browsed the new store on opening day. All 529 parking spaces were filled.

The new Sears featured a retail store, a cafeteria, snack bar, farm implement store, and a service station. It was also a new type of shopping experience as it was intentionally set outside the shopping district so that it could accommodate a large amount of parking.

Sears emphasized that they utilized local companies and workers to construct the new building. Architectural firm Ashton-Evans created the engineer drawings, Jacobson Construction did the building, Bennet Glass and Paint supplied the glass, and Salt Lake Cabinet and Fixture Company built the showcases and cabinets.

The store also featured 11 murals measuring 5x16 feet that depicted the history of the state. The murals were painted by Chicago artist Eugene A. Montgomery, who painted a number of these murals for Sears in various cities across the county.

Visit the Eugene Montgomery website to see all the murals in the SLC Sears as well as his work in other Sears buildings across the country. 

The Sears store closed Jan 2018. Architectural firm Sparano + Mooney has designed a mixed use affordable and market rate housing, commercial office buildings, retail center, and multistory boutique hotel that will replace the 8.5 acres Sears complex.

No word on if the taco carts will remain after redevelopment.

Grand opening SL Trib July 13 1947

Selection of 4 murals, originals would have been in color. From eugenemontgomery.com

Interior Sept 1947. Shipler Photo from UDSH.

Sears 1951, SL Trib negative from UDSH.

Sears Sign ca 1950s/1960s, from Marriot Library Special Collections

Cooley Park baseball field that occupied the Sears lot, 1911. Shipler 11904 from UDSH.

Holiday Shopping from the Sears Roebuck Catalog, 1919

100 years ago, holiday shopping could be done through mail order through Sears Roebuck. Here are some choice gifts from the 1919 Fall Sears Roebuck and Co Catalog. 

Warning: some items are racist by today's standards. Digital images from Sears Roebuck catalog via Ancestry.