Building Also Known As: Tolboe Construction (after 1986 until probable destruction)
Address: 1130 S 500 W
City: Salt Lake City
County: Salt Lake
State: UT
Building Type: Industrial
Style: Post-War Modern
Work Scope: Original Design
Blueprint Available: UofU Library, Special Collections, Tube 132
A&E Related Architect: Ashton, Evans & Brazier
A&E Work Approx Date: 1957
Architects Confirmed? Evans, R.M.
Original Cost: $250,000 (Ground broken).
Builder: Utah Construction Co. (Ground broken).
Site Survival? N (as of 2022)
Description
Cate Equipment Company has served the construction, mining and industrial industries in the intermountain west since 1938. They provide new and used machine sales, rentals, parts, service, and repairs. In 1956 they commissioned Ashton, Evans & Brazier to build a new office and warehouse to replace their then-current headquarters building on 900 South in Salt Lake City. The new building was to provide efficiency in the sales, service, and repair of heavy construction and mining machinery (Ground broken).
AE&B studied and visited 25 large modern machinery companies throughout the country as they developed the floor plan design. The building was of brick and block construction with large office windows facing the eastern mountains. A parking area was provided for customers and company cars (Ground broken).
In Feb 1986, Cate moved to a new facility and the AE&B building was sold to Tolboe Construction who made extensive changes to the front of the building and the landscaping (Evans). Currently (2023), Brahma Group is located at this address (1132 S 500 W), but it appears that none of the original building remains.
Research Notes
Cate Equipment was one of my first successful contacts on this project! My only indication that AE&B had designed a building for Cate was the entry “Cate Equipment Co.” on AEB’s building inventory ("Some of the projects designed by Raymond Leslie Evans," 1963). When I started this project (1986), I looked up Cate’s address in the phone book and wrote a letter inquiring about the building. Robert M. Evans (Secretary/Treasurer of Cate Equipment) wrote back. Cate had just moved to a new building, and he included some marketing material with photos from the previous AE&B building.
As usual, addresses can be confusing in this part of town. In 1973, Salt Lake City changed the street numbering scheme in the city’s north and west quadrants. So, the blueprints show the building to be at 400 West (currently behind a Target parking lot fronting the I-15 freeway). And, at one point, I took photos of this address! But address of the original building is now on 500 West and I eventually took photos of the Tolboe building at that address.
Sources
- Evans, R.M. (1986, Dec 23). The building that you inquired about. [Letter]. Original in possession of Corrinne M. Fiedler.
- Ground broken for $250,000 Cate Equipment facilities. (1956, Jul 29). Salt Lake Tribune. - https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6gf62pd/27644835
- Special Collections, Ashton & Evans collection [unprocessed blueprints, Marriott tube 132]. J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.