A&E Related Architect: Ashton & Evans
A&E Work Approx Date: 1936, dedicated Dec 1936
Architects Confirmed? Pres. McKay to dedicate Yalecrest chapel Sunday (1936)
Original Cost: $70,000
Site: Yalecrest
Site Survival? Y (2022)
Site Condition? Excellent (2022)
Description
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 notable Utah Art Deco design constructed of board-textured, reinforced concrete and highlighted by an octagonal tower decorated with ceramic tile and roofed with a metal lantern (Utah State Preservation). The Yalecrest Ward blueprints include several beautiful, colored proposal sketches, though these do not include the well-known Art Deco tower, nor the bay window (Special collections).
LDS President David O. McKay dedicated the chapel on 30 Dec 1936. Though this was during the Great Depression, all construction costs had been paid at the time of dedication (An invitation; Pres. McKay).
Blueprint artifacts show that A&E did undated minor alterations to the chapel platform (Special collections). Richardson & Richardson designed a 6400 sq ft addition in 1963 (Jackson).
Research Notes
The design timing is still a mystery. Yalecrest Ward was organized in Dec 1935 and McCullough was sustained as chairman of the building committee at that time (New L.D.S. ward). However, the Yalecrest Ward A&E prints are dated seven months earlier (May 1935). Assumedly the preliminary sketches were done even earlier, possibly in early 1935 or even 1934 (Special collections).
Jackson (1987) also notes that “[Yalecrest] plans were dated June 1935 and it was completed quickly.” He would have been looking at a different set of plans than I am (his were in the L.D.S. Church architect’s office) but reports the same confusing dates.
The site purchase details do not clarify the situation. The Salt Lake Tribune (New L.D.S. ward) writes that land had been purchased before Dec 1935. The dedicatory program (An invitation) notes that the land was secured in Jan 1936 and plans were begun then.
How was it that plans and land acquisition were well underway before Yalecrest Ward was created? Was McCullough ‘betting on the come’ that the Yale Ward would be divided and that the new ward would be called Yalecrest Ward?
Sources
- An invitation program to the dedicatory services for the Yalecrest Ward Chapel. (1936, Dec 6). Photo in possession of Corrinne Fiedler.
- Jackson, R. (1987). Ashton & Evans Projects [Personal correspondence]. Original in possession of Corrinne Fiedler.
- National Park Service (2007, Sep 27). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Yalecrest Historic District. United States Department of the Interior. - https://catalog.archives.gov/id/72001379
- New L.D.S. ward formed, dividing old Yale group. (1935, Dec 30). Salt Lake Tribune. - https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s669g7pk/30595806
- Pres. McKay to dedicate Yalecrest chapel Sunday. (1936, Dec 5). Deseret News. - https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6jd9vbv/25517995
- Rocky Mountain Power Company Photograph Collection (P0206). Salt Lake City, Yalecrest area [1]. Multimedia Archives, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. - https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6ps15j8
- Salt Lake Tribune Negative Collection (MSS C400). (1936, Dec 5). S.L.C. Yalecrest Ward-Shot 1. Hosted by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. - https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6jh5pkf
- Special Collections, Ashton & Evans collection [unprocessed blueprints]. J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
- Talbot, B. (2016, Dec 6). Yalecrest Ward. Historic LDS Architecture. - http://ldspioneerarchitecture.blogspot.com/search/label/Yalecrest%20Ward
- Utah State Preservation Office. (2018, Aug 21). Utah's historic architectural guide. Utah Division of State History. - https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/architectural_guide_booklet