1929-1939
Berntson, John & Alice residence
The earliest Utah newspaper references to John Berntson show his successes (at 43 years old) at the annual Norwegian-American Athletic Club’s ski tournament: 3rd place in the 6-mile cross country ski event and 2nd place in the standing ski jump (Kalmar Andreason). There must be a backstory here, and there is! Berntson was born in…
Centre Theater & Shopping Center
The location of the Centre Theater and Shops (NE corner of Broadway and State in Salt Lake City) is the historic site of the first Utah irrigation in 1847. The Knutsford Hotel, Sears Roebuck, and the Auerbach department store then occupied the site for many years until 1935 when the building was demolished as being…
Crescent Elementary
Crescent Elementary has served three different roles in nearly 100 years: elementary school, alternative high school, and now a restaurant and event center. At the end of the 19th century, the Salt Lake County School District began to consolidate the neighborhood schools and provide funds for new buildings. The county suggested that some of the…
Exeter, T. Hazen & Juanita residence
Ashton & Evans designed several well-publicized all-electric homes in conjunction with Utah Power & Light: Exhibition House (Country Club Acres, 1930), Home of Ideas (Olmstead, 1936), and All Electric Home (Preston ID, n.d.). Less well known is the Exeter residence – a Blue Star Natural Gas Home designed and built in conjunction with Utah Gas…
Exhibition House
Building speculative (spec) houses isn’t new. In 1930, Ashton & Evans contracted with Architectural Building Company to design a spec house in the new Country Club Acres development at the foot of Parley’s Canyon. It was – and still is – a prestigious neighborhood with current home prices over $1 million. Advertising for this home…
George Thomas Library
In 1905 the University of Utah’s Board of Regents expanded Richard Kletting’s original commons plan into the present horseshoe arrangement. Between 1900 and 1935, nine buildings were built on the horseshoe, the Thomas Library being the last. These nine buildings, the Presidents’ Circle, were a major architectural statement chronicling the development of the University into…
Heber City Library
The story of the 1939 Heber City library began in June 1937 when the Heber Mercantile – housing the library – burned to the ground. The store lost $35,000 of inventory, while the library lost all – excepting 500 – of their 10,000 books ($150,000 fire sweeps; Hollis). For the next few months, Heber City…
Las Vegas Ward
The Las Vegas Latter-day Saint ward house was built during the depression and dealt with serious financial issues from beginning to end. When the ward authorities announced that after much prayer and soul searching, a new chapel would be built at 9th and Clark streets, there was strong dissent. “What: Build the chapel way out…
Modernization Exposition
Raymond Ashton was the vice president and general manager of the 1934 Modernization Exposition held in two floors of a large downtown building (previously the Knutsford hotel and leased from the Auerbach company for the show). The show was capitalized at $30,000, sponsored by the Modernization Committee of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce,…
Park City War Memorial Veterans Building
Park City’s historic War Memorial Building was built with strong support of the Summit County commissioners who realized the county was “in need of such a structure where all religions, business groups, [and] civic groups could meet on common ground in a building suitable for all occasions” (Formal opening). The central elevation of the two-story…
Randolph Ward Recreation Center
In the early days of Latter-day Saint settlement in Utah, as resources permitted, amusement halls were constructed adjacent – or near – to the meetinghouses. These structures were used for theater, dance halls, sport, political, and religious purposes. This practice of separating the meetinghouse and the amusement hall continued well into the twentieth century. In…
Siegel, Dal & Cecelia residence
The history of the Dal Siegel home is sparser and more confusing than other homes of this era. Among other things I don’t have solid evidence that the final build design is actually an Ashton & Evans’ design (see Research Notes section, below). It is clear that Dal Siegel built the striated brick residence in…
Summit County Hospital
Prior to the building of the Summit County Hospital, surgeries in Coalville were done on kitchen tables, in a room over the mercantile, or on a portable operating table. Thus, the local doctors were motivated to work with the County Commissioners to build a hospital in Summit County. The building was started in Dec 1938…
Temple Square Hotel and Ballroom
The six-story Temple Square Hotel was built in 1929 for the Zions Security Corp (the financial arm of the LDS Church). With 200 rooms, it was strategically located on the NE corner of South Temple and West Temple, immediately across from the LDS Temple Square. The original press notice (S.L. to have) notes that Zions…
Yalecrest Ward
Yale Ward was divided and Yalecrest Ward organized on 29 Dec 1935. At that time, the new bishopric was sustained along with R. Verne McCullough as chairman of the Yalecrest building committee (New L.D.S ward). Note that A&E had designed McCullough’s Yalecrest residence ten years earlier. Groundbreaking was held in May 1936.The building is a…