Updates on Adaptive Reuse and Preservation Projects in SLC

 A few of my observed updates on Adaptive Reuse and Preservation projects in Salt Lake City. 

1) The Pickle & Hide building at 739 S 400 W SLC. Some new windows in the Hide building. The Utah Pickle building was demolished in May 2025 and a replacement is being built with a similar design.

2) The Salisbury Mansion at 574 E 100 South is slowly advancing. The old Evans and Early mortuary is being transformed to an assisted living facility. Some non-contributing additions to the primary structure have been removed and the stonework repaired. The old 1972 garage was demolished and a new addition is being completed. This project has oversight by the SLC Historic Landmark Commission as the building is a local historic landmark.

3-4) The Liberty Wells Recreation Center at 707 S 400 East SLC is finished with the modifications to some windows/door openings and  new windows have recently been installed. Construction of new single family attached houses continues on the old recreation field. 

5) The remaining silos of the old Cereal Food Processors and one associated building have recently been repainted. Construction for the new apartment buildings are continuing. The Midwest Casket Co Building at 440 W 600 South is part of this overall project and is planned to also be adaptively reused. 

Before the 10th East Senior Center: Origins of the Salt Lake Tennis Club

In 1912 the Salt Lake Tennis Club opened at what is now the Tenth East Senior Center at 237 S 1000 East SLC.

Tennis Tournaments were popular for both men and women in Salt Lake during the 1910s

Brothers Orange J. Salisbury Jr and R. Walker Salisbury financed the construction of five clay courts and a concrete clubhouse at a cost of $25K (~$830K today).

Membership in the Salt Lake Tennis Club was by invitation only and limited to 85 shares. Utah's social elite played tennis while Joe Dally, formerly of the California Tennis Club, served as professional.

The club became one of the first in the West to join the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association. Tournaments drew players from across the Intermountain region. For 15 years, the courts remained private.

A 1912 newspaper photograph of the new Salt Lake Tennis clubhouse and courts.

A side-by-side comparison of an artist rendering before construction of the Salt Lake Tennis Club, and a photograph of its completion. Photograph is from UDSH.

The Salt Lake Tennis courts and clubhouse, June 29, 1912. Image from UDSH.

In 1927 Salt Lake City purchased the property from Salisbury and it was renamed Victory Recreation Center, a name suggested by Clarence W. Bowman who received a season pass for the winning name. Activities included new playgrounds, reading, swimming, table games, swings, and athletics.

The Salt Lake Tennis Club was allowed to remain as a private club and continued hosting nearly every major tennis tournament in Utah. The Tennis Club moved to Forest Dale in 1933 (the club is now known as the Salt Lake Tennis and Health Club). The Victory Recreation Center became fully public, and the five clay courts were converted to cement.

The University of Utah won against Brigham Young University at the Utah state collegiate tennis tournament at the newly named Victory Recreation Park, 1927.
From Salt Lake Tribune June 3 p12.

In the 1940s the Victory Boys and Girls' Club operated at the site. After that club relocated in 1945, the building later housed the Jaycee Boys and Girls Club. By 1954, the building was condemned.

That year, 15 seniors formed the Silver Crest group and began renovating the condemned building themselves including installing cupboards, laying tile, painting, and contributing furnishings. By 1960, about 1,000 people per week were using the facility.

Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County partnered to build the new Tenth East Senior Center in 1963. The city provided the land and landscaping and the county funded construction including the 1977 expansion.

Tenth East Senior Center

The 10th East Senior Center at 237 S 1000 E SLC has been in the news recently and it can be easy to overlook. With its low profile and clean modern lines this mid-century building is an architectural gem.

The 10th East Senior Center at 237 S 1000 East

When it opened in 1963, it was the first facility in Salt Lake County designed and built specifically for seniors. The building reflected a shift in how people understood aging, family situations, and community support.

The center’s origins date to 1954, when a small group of seniors formed the Silver Crest Club. Along with other senior groups, they met in the former Jaycee Boys and Girls Club building on this site.

After that building was condemned in 1960 planning for the new senior center began. Other locations were considered, including a controversial site within Liberty Park, but ultimately, the decision was to rebuild on the original site.

The building was designed by architects Burtch W. Beall Jr. and Paul L. Lemoine, with George S. Nicholatus serving as project manager, identified as the [short lived] Burtch W. Beal Jr., Lemoine & Nicholatus, architectural firm.

Beall, Lemoine, and Nicholatus were each influential in shaping Salt Lake City’s mid-century built environment and civic landscape.

Beall often gets the most attention as he was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and taught courses at the UofU. His works include the Medial Student Housing Towers at 90 S 2030 E (recently demolished); Shaw Student Union at Westminster College; and the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Ogden.

Lemoine designed the Irving Heights Apts at 1963 S 1200 E; the Glendale Plaza shopping center at 1200 S 1300 W (significantly altered, now Dual Immersion Academy); Utah Auto Association (AAA) at 560 E 500 S; and others.

Nicholatus’s civic service included arts, planning, health, and charitable organizations. He was involved with the construction of the original Salt Palace and Abravanel Hall.

A product of Salt Lake City’s Mid-Century Modern peak, the building was shaped by leading architects and civic figures and has functioned as a community hub for more than six decades (and longer if you consider the pre 1963 history... read more about that here).

Salt Lake's OG Whale

Salt Lake's OG Whale is located at the RC Willey furniture store, 2301 S 300 West, South Salt Lake City.

Artist and conservationist Robert Wyland painted this mural of a blue whale mother and calf in 1998 during his 50-states-in-50-days Ocean Challenge tour, which taught landlocked communities that ocean health is directly tied to inland pollution.

Collaboration among Wyland, RC Willey, and the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium resulted in Utah hosting one of Wyland's 100 "Whaling Walls," a global project he painted between 1981 and 2008.

The RC Willey mural is titled "World of Ocean Life" and measures 100x60 ft.

Originally, the mural included a lower portion that was painted by local kids and showcased dolphins, orcas, squid, and starfish.

The founders of Loveland Living Planet Aquarium invited Wyland to Salt Lake as part of their efforts to fundraise and build community support for the aquarium. At the time, the aquarium was searching for their first location, which would eventually be at the Gateway in 2004.

The Wyland Foundation donated the cost of the mural and RC Willey's CEO, Bill Child, approved the donation of the wall. Child supported helping the aquarium gain awareness and believed the public art would enhance Utah's hosting of the upcoming 2002 Winter Olympics.

Not all of Wyland's 100 Whaling Wall murals survive today. Wikipedia lists 28 of his murals as being "extinct" meaning covered over, destroyed, significantly altered, or no longer accessible to the public.

You can catch a glimpse of the mural when traveling southbound on I-15 around 2100 S, or up close at the SLC RC Willey store. 🐋

Valley Tan Knocks out Tom Longcoffin

A fun illustration from 1884 advertising Valley Tan Remedies. Tom Longcoffin, appropriately illustrated as a pinch-toe coffin, surrenders to the Valley Tan Remedies patent medicine. 

The Valley Tan reference has quite a history. Early historian Edward Tullidge explained the term was first used regarding locally tanned leather (vs imported leather from outside the Utah Territory) which was of poor quality due to expedited processes.

The term became a derogatory expression to any rough homemade item, including whiskey. It gradually began to be applied more broadly to any item made within Utah, and by the 1860s was used as a "buy local" campaign to support local businesses.

This advertisement stems from the Johnson family patent medicine business. Originally began by LDS Pioneer Joseph Ellis Johnson Sr, who had a longstanding curiosity about botany, among other interests.

By the 1860s, Joseph was advertising his remedies in the Deseret News and sharing his recipes and discussing horticulture in his own newspaper, The Farmer's Oracle.

As Joseph aged, his eldest child from his 3rd plural wife, Charles “Charlie” Ellis Johnson, took over the medicinal family business using his father’s recipes.

In the early to mid-1880s, Charlie worked in the ZCMI Drug Department where he stocked many of the Johnson elixirs, including “Johnson’s Essence of Life” advertised to promptly save the lives of your children. And the “Valley Tan Canker Syrup” and “V-T Worm Lozenges” (to treat intestinal worms).

In 1888, Charlie partnered with Parley P. Pratt Jr, also from the ZCMI Drug Department, to form the Johnson-Pratt Drug Co located at 48 S Main St SLC. Charlie continued to manufacture the Johnson family medicines under the name Valley Tan Remedies (VTR) Laboratory.

Charlie was also interested in photography, and while still engaged in the drug business, partnered with Hyrum Sainsbury to open a photo studio.

For a time, the VTC Laboratory and his photo studio/printing/supply business were all in the same building at 54 S West Temple (now roughly the location of Utah Museum of Contemporary Art).

Around 1895, Hyrum retired and Charlie incorporated his photography business, as Johnson Co., while still president of the Johnson-Pratt Drug Co. Charlie took many of the iconic photographs of SLC

Phillips Congregational Church Demolition Update

Fencing has been put up around the historic Phillips Congregational Church near Trolley Square, 479 S 700 East Salt Lake City. The first sign that demolition is imminent.

As seen on July 3 2025, fencing around the Phillips Congregational Church, SLC.

The Ghosts of Eden Park and Utah's Very Slight Connection

The audiobook I'm listening to right now: 
The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who
Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America

George and Imogene Remus

The Ghosts of Eden Park is about the bootlegger king, George Remus and his wife Imogene. They were big names in the Midwest in the 1920s. 

Of course I found a (slight) Utah connection: Clarence Beard was an associate (or so he says) of George Remus and he was captured in Salt Lake City in 1928, after his escape from a Criminally Insane Hospital in Ohio for the murder of Stephen Zaborskis in Cleveland. He was identified by the new technology of fingerprinting.

Utah closely followed the sensational trial of George Remus.

Charles Beard, an associate of George Remus, was captured in SLC.

Beyond the bootlegging aspect, the women are independent and ambitious. I particularly enjoy Mabel Walker Willebrant, US Assistant Attorney General in the 1920s and prosecuted Remus. She was a professional lawyer who turned down an offer of marriage to keep working and then adopted a child as a single mother.