Classic Salt Lake City.

[utahboozer]

I'd love to see some pics of 4th South before Trax.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by cololi

Not one with the scaffolding, but image looking east of old library block

What else was on the block before the current library was built?

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

What else was on the block before the current library was built?

The tower was the Salt Lake Jail. I'm guessing the others were city offices?

[arkhitektor]

Boy, the Utah State Historical Society has an amazing collection of photos on their site.

I'm going to cheat a little and post some photos of Ogden on here as well:





















































Not enough, but many of these buildings are still around. A small perk associated with the fact that the city center had been in decline for the past few decades is that there wasn't a lot of new construction to replace historic buildings downtown.

[jmonkey]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

What else was on the block before the current library was built?

The Metropolitan Hall of Justice--jail space, as comrade pointed out, and courts space that was replaced with the Matheson Courthouse. As you can see from the photo, you're basically looking at the bastard step-sisters of the library, set in a cold, boring, concrete plaza. It was an ugly, sterile, unfriendly place; the buildings faced inward along 200 East, and there was a parking garage where the entrance to the new library is now. I think the city's love of the new library comes from an unconscious inner-well of gratitude that it replaced this mid-century dreck. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Future Mayor]

I would be interesting if someone had or could take a picture of the Library from that same vantage point. Anyone work in city hall that can take a picture of it?

[Skyscrapers4Me]

Originally Posted by jmonkey

The Metropolitan Hall of Justice--jail space, as comrade pointed out, and courts space that was replaced with the Matheson Courthouse. As you can see from the photo, you're basically looking at the bastard step-sisters of the library, set in a cold, boring, concrete plaza. It was an ugly, sterile, unfriendly place; the buildings faced inward along 200 East, and there was a parking garage where the entrance to the new library is now. I think the city's love of the new library comes from an unconscious inner-well of gratitude that it replaced this mid-century dreck. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Yeah, ugly and very UN-earthquake proof. Really brilliant...put a big heavy boxy building, with a good portion of Salt Lake's court system...ON STILTS !!! Does anyone else remember the flawed demolition?

[TANGELD_SLC]

So how is it that a city like San Francisco is able to save so many of it's beautiful older buildings but Salt Lake just tore 'em down? We were and continue to be smaller and grew less but it seems to me we lost alot more.

[T-Mac]

I have to say that this has become one of my favorite threads to read. I am loving all the old pictures of Salt Lake from Comrade and all the others who have contributed. Keep them coming.

[i-215]

OH!!! So that building is in Ogden!!!

I keep seeing that building, and the deco style reminds of The Dragnet Building in Los Angeles, but it's too short.

[WASDEN]

Originally Posted by Comrade Reynolds

You can see that campus next to the Temple here.



Also notice how dirty the LDS Temple is from the the smoke, since many buildings downtown had chimneys during this time.

The loss of the campus kind of makes me sick. It looks pretty awesome.

Comrade- I need to get back to this picture CUZ IT ROCKS! Wherever did you find it? That is a cool view of the campus I've never seen before, but also I was wondering about a few idosyncrisies- It appears that the Mormon Temple has also had a kind of North wing addition since that photo:



Maybe added at the time of its cleaning? Anybody know? Also what was the signifcance of that small house on Temple Square?
And for some 'CLasssic Salt Lake City' fashion trivia- what is that woman wearing on her feet? Are they plastic baggies in lieu of snowboots?

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by i-215

OH!!! So that building is in Ogden!!!

I keep seeing that building, and the deco style reminds of The Dragnet Building in Los Angeles, but it's too short.

That's Ogden High School:



It's currently being renovated:



The Ogden Municipal Building is also done in a nice art deco style:

[TANGELD_SLC]

Originally Posted by WASDEN

Comrade- I need to get back to this picture CUZ IT ROCKS! Wherever did you find it? That is a cool view of the campus I've never seen before, but also I was wondering about a few idosyncrisies- It appears that the Mormon Temple has also had a kind of North wing addition since that photo:



Maybe added at the time of its cleaning? Anybody know? Also what was the signifcance of that small house on Temple Square?
And for some 'CLasssic Salt Lake City' fashion trivia- what is that woman wearing on her feet? Are they plastic baggies in lieu of snowboots?

The house on the square is the preparation house, where Church (oops LDS Church) faithful put on their ceremonial attire, pray, spiritually prepare themselves and are basically educated on the ceremonies, endowments or sealings they will be participating in. It also has a cafeteria and clothing rental.

They then go into a tunnel that leads from the house into the north annex (Built in 1966, it replaced the original annex) and finally into the temple itself. That way they don't have to open those massive doors and it also is a security precaution to prevent desecration of the Temple by unworthy entry.

I have NO idea what she is wearing on her feet, however

[WASDEN]

TANGELD- I'm refering to the small white house behind the woman in Comrade's older photo, I think the preparation house you're refering to is in the newer photo with the North annex- thanks for clearing that part up. Anybody know the significance of that small white house behind the woman?? I'm guessing there is if it was built on Temple Square (where you don't see many small homes).

[Future Mayor]

My guess would be that it was used as the housing for possible the temple president or maybe ground or security to live in. Just simply a guess.

[WASDEN]

Built for the first time in 1893, Saltair burned (several times), was flooded, and even left high and dry by an uncooperative lake. Saltair was featured in a movie (a horror film called Carnival of Souls- seen it Comrade??) and even a Beach Boys album cover. This was one one of Salt Lake's most unique architectural masterpieces IMO.




Trains would drop you off right at the door!





Although not Saltair, I thought this was a cool view of Main St. and some pretty effective advertising:


White rollercoaster at Lagoon got nuthin on this!:






Swimsuit fashion:





Wind surfer:





The day Urbanboy was born??




I'm glad Saltair is still around in some form. Seen some pretty rockin bands out there in my time.

[Future Mayor]

The original Saltair was definitely a gem, it's too bad that neither one of the first two are still around. Although it is nice to have at least something out there.

I remember going out one time, before the floods in the last picture and riding on the water slide and some tiny coaster type thing that was all in that little tower on the right.

[shakman]

What happened there? Did the lake rise?

[SLC Projects]

Hard to believe that people used to swim in that shit.

[Skyscrapers4Me]

Originally Posted by shakman

What happened there? Did the lake rise?

My parents RAVE about "old Saltair". They've talked again and again about the rollercoaster, how it was one of the biggest and baddest in the country, the dance floor. It was apparently THE happenin' place...heh heh. And yeah, the lake goes UP & down, very easily. It slopes so gently that one foot of water vertically adds up to a LOT more real estate underwater horizontally.

Saltair burned down, at least 2 times, that I'm aware of. They decided not to rebuild it until the early 80's. Then the lake went WAAAAYYYY up ("the flood years"). Historic high. Like, almost-into-the-Bountiful-sewer-system high. Washing-out-I-80-by-Tooele-every-time-it-stormed high. The-airport-is-threatened high. I could go on and on...simply unbelievable. You had to be there...

I really feel bad for the guys who bought it and restored the building. The day it was supposed to open, the parking lot was sandbagged. They were trying to stop the inevitable. The whole first floor was several feet underwater. Sort of like trying to stop the Mississippi River when it decides to flood. They did a topnotch $$$$$ job, and Mother Nature destroyed it in a hurry.

When I was an itty-bitty kiddie, my grade school went out to "Silver Sands" beach, which was by the Saltair site. We rode a train, which my dad informed me was the old "Bamburger Line", owned by Simon Bamburger, a wealthy Jewish "gentile" ( only in Utah, haha ).

Dad was talking about the "lake stink", just the other day. I told him that I didn't remember it until after the lake went so high, in about 1987. He said he doesn't remember it either.

I think the formal explanation was that the lake had so much more water, that the salinity went down. Algae was able to grow in it. When the water level fell, the algae was washed up on shore, and rotted. Since we still have "lake stink" all these years later, I tend to think that all those years of cities dumping their sewers into the Jordan River and the lake left THAT high and dry. It wasn't stinky, back in the day. Just very salty ( don't get it in your eyes or mouth ). Lots of brine flies on the surface. Go to Antelope Island for the "clean" swim now.