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…

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Teton Stake & Driggs Ward Tabernacle

Driggs Idaho is located in Teton Valley nestled along the Idaho-Wyoming border. It is surrounded by vast farmlands and plains that lead up to the tall, cragged peaks of Wyoming’s Teton Range. The Driggs Ward of the LDS church was organized in 1901 and soon thereafter the Teton Stake was organized. In 1904 the stake approved a…

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Twenty First Ward Cultural Hall Addition

This property on 1st Avenue has served the LDS church with three different structures, beginning with a chapel and cultural hall in 1877. That building had served its purpose by the early 20th century. The Chapel was replaced in 1904 and the cultural hall in 1926 as part of a large Ashton & Evans addition….

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Twenty Seventh Ward Cultural Hall Addition

The Twenty Seventh Ward was created in January 1902 and the membership immediately began meeting in Taggert Hall over a drug store until their new chapel at 187 P Street was complete. During construction, members would stop by the site on their way to-or-from work to help with the building. The Victorian Gothic-style chapel was…

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U.S. Naval Convalescent Hospital (Conversion)

What a mystery this has been. My original notes show one project in Glenwood Springs: Glenwood Springs Hotel – Alterations. But the backstory is much bigger and more interesting. Glenwood Spring’s imposing Hotel Colorado was conceived in the 1890s by developer Walter Devereux to cater to the wealthy tourist and Hollywood star. Boring, Tilton and…

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Union Building

Between 1900 and 1935, nine buildings were built on the University of Utah commons (Presidents Circle), the 1928 Union Building being the penultimate. These nine buildings were a major architectural statement chronicling the development of the University into an important educational institution (National Park). In 1922 university students had expressed an urgent need for a…

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University of Utah Medical Center (Planning)

The University of Utah Medical Center was a multi-year project: from concept discussion (1945) until opening (1965). This page covers the timeline up-to-and-including the concept approval in early 1959. The University of Utah Medical School opened in 1905 and for many years followed a ‘brains not bricks’ motto, prioritizing faculty appointments, not buildings. By the…

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Upton Apartments

Built in 1925, the Upton Apartments is a large, 3 1/2-story building with multi-color brick exterior walls and a concrete foundation. There are three evenly-spaced, projecting vestibule/stairways across the Jefferson Avenue facade. The striated brick exterior walls are accented with geometric panels of lighter and darker brick. Ceramic tile, cast stone columns, and entablatures frame…

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Wells Ward Amusement Hall

The Wells Ward was created in June 1919 and at the same time it was announced that “plans for the immediate building of a meeting house will be completed within a few days” (L.D.S. create). It was true, only 16 days later (July), the location of the new building on 500 East near 2100 South…

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Wells Ward Chapel Addition

Wells Ward was created in June 1919 and religious services were held in the new Wells Ward Amusement Hall from March 1920 until 1926 at which time the Wells Ward Chapel addition was built. The “preliminaries” (preliminary designs) for the chapel had been developed in 1920 by Rutherford and Ashton. However Francis Rutherford moved to…

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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…

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