Sugarhouse

2007-09-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

Sugarhouse in the early 1900's

This is a collection of pictures I have compiled in the last few years because I grew up in Sugarhouse. (You can also view the blog http://www.class45-a.blogspot.com/ about three teenagers from Sugarhouse who trained together in the Army Air Corps in WWII.) I lived near 2200 South 600 East and attended Columbus School located on 500 East, Irving Junior High in the heart of Sugarhouse and South High on State Street.

This is a picture of the Sugar Factory after which Sugarhouse was named. The odd thing is that the factory never produced a grain of sugar. It was later turned in to a paper factory but the name of the area Sugarhouse stuck, I guess, because it sounded better than Paperhouse. The paper factory was later reestablished at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. That building which is known as the Old Mill still stands today. More about the Old Mill later.

This is Sugarhouse on 21st South and Highland Drive (11th East) looking east toward Parley's Canyon. Irving Jr. High School can be seen to the left and behind the top of the obelisk. The Utah State Prison is just beyond the point where 21st South disappears in the distance. To get an enlarged view of any picture in this blog just Left click anywhere in the picture and then use the scroll bars at the right and below the picture to see the entire picture.

Irving Junior High School.

The new Utah State Penitentiary - Sugarhouse in 1903. The inmates were transferred to the new Point of the Mountain Prison in 1951.

Close-up of the prison entrance.

This is looking west from the top of the prison wall in 1948. The prison fence was next to 21st South.

This picture shows the beginning of the prison demolition in 1955. This location is now Sugarhouse Park with Highland High School on its east border.

License plate production line at the new prison, in 1964, located in Draper.

The obelisk located on 21st South and Highland Dr.

Success Market located on 21st South and Highland Dr. in 1934.

This view was taken looking south down Highland Drive from 21st south in 1947. South East Theater is on the left and Southeast Furniture is just above the officer's head.

A recent view of the obelisk looking east from a point where 21st South splits, about one half block from Highland Drive.

Woolworth's Department Store (is where I met my wife Elva in 1947, a tribute to her life can be viewed at http://www.elvafarewell.blogspot.com/) was under construction next to the original Snelgrove's Ice Cream store at about 1050 East 21th South. Picture was taken in 1940.

The Marlo Theater was located next to J.C. Penney on 21st South and 10th East in 1947.

1955 aerial view of Sugarhouse's expansion to the south. Highland Drive is at the bottom and the D&RGW Railroad track runs diagonally from the bottom left, through a tunnel under 13th East and up into Parley's Canyon and Park City. The Utah State Prison can be seen on 21st South just above 13th East in the upper left corner.

2007 Google Earth view of Sugarhouse expansion. Highland Drive is at the bottom similar to the 1955 photo above.

Forest School was located on 21st South and 9th East.

Petty Ford, taken in 1938, was across the street from Forest School.

Petty Ford used car lot looking north from across the street from Forest School. Notice the LDS Granite Stake Center building, constructed in 1930, in the background.

Columbus School on 2530 south 5th East in 1939.

Columbus School's conversion to a Salt Lake County Library, Community and Senior Center.

Nibley Park LDS Ward House on about 2400 South on 6th East about 1930.

South High School, which was not in Sugarhouse but about 1600 South State Street, is where most of the kids living in Sugarhouse went to school. The South High building is now occupied by Salt Lake Community College. Most of the Sugarhouse kids now go to the new Highland High School which is located just east of where the Sugarhouse Prison used to be on 2100 South.

The old Coon Chicken Inn was located at 2960 South Highland Drive.

Coon Chicken Inn
by a descendant of Maxon Lester Graham

As a descendant of the original founders of the Coon Chicken Inn, I would like to first preface this web page by saying that I do not condone the “Jim Crew” attitudes of the day. I and ALL of my siblings believe in full equality for all races, creeds and skin colors. The legacy that was left by my grandparents was one that seemed to be normal business practice that has since seen its day and I for one am grateful for it. What is left behind are artifacts of “Black Memorabilia” that serve as a reminder that this particular part of history must never and will never be repeated. The following is a brief history of the Coon Chicken Inn.

---------------------------------------------------------

The Coon Chicken Inn was founded by Maxon Lester Graham. To understand the history of the Coon Chicken Inn, you must understand my grandfather. He was born June 17, 1879 and almost immediately had a flair for business.

During the period from 1923 to 1924, he took on distribution of several makes of cars including the Carter Car, Dort, Moon, Elcar and finally the Gray. In 1924 the M.L. Graham Co. had a profitable year.

Maxon had married Adelaide Burt and they were looking for a new business to get into. For sometime they had been driving to a small town, south of Salt Lake City, for Sunday dinner, at a small restaurant that served excellent chicken. It was quick to prepare and they thought would do well in Salt Lake. At the time there were no outside hamburger type stands anywhere, the only places to eat were in town. At the edge of Salt Lake City, in one of its suburbs, Sugar House, they found a location on a corner of Highland Drive and found a small building, near the West Side School that contained three stools, an Ice box and a small counter. They bought this for $50.00 and in 1925 they were in the chicken business.

The business took off immediately and it was not long that they enlarged the place, and put in an addition with tables and a dance floor along with adding counter space. By 1927 they had added so many additions that it started to look a Katzenjammer castle. On the week before the fourth of July, 1927 about 6 P.M., the restaurant caught on fire. The place was grease soaked from deep fat frying, and soon the fire was out of control. This tragedy was about three months after the Salt Air Pavilion, located on Great Salt Lake, had burned to the ground. The organizers of the Pavilion had hired over 250 carpenters to rebuild it so Maxon and Addie had no trouble finding the help to rebuild the restaurant. They were afraid that other places that had sprung up in competition to them, would take their business. So they erected a sign stating that the place would be re-opened within ten days. They opened on schedule with a banner crowd.

Late in the year 1929 they opened another Coon Chicken Inn in Seattle on Lake City Way N.E. Soon Maxon and Addie moved to Seattle. In the year 1930 they added the restaurant on Sandy Boulevard in Portland, Oregon. All three sites were booming and a cabaret and orchestra was added in Seattle and Salt Lake with a larger dining room and the addition of delivery trucks for outside catering. Maxon decided that if a gimmick were added for the children, it would help bring in the parents. He added the famous head logo to the entrances of the inns. At the time it proved quite popular. The logo of the Inn was on every dish, silverware item, menu and paper product.

The Coon Chicken Inn ran until the late 1950’s when Maxon and Addie decided to keep the properties and lease out the buildings to other operators. On the Seattle site is Yings Drive Inn, the Salt Lake City site is the Chuck-A-Rama and the Portland site is the Prime Rib.

The Paper Factory in Sugarhouse was reestablished at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, in 1881, into what is now known as the Old Mill which is still standing, in fact, the nearby business area bears its name today.

The Old Mill after a fire in the 1920's.

Some time after the fire, the Old Mill was converted into a dance hall. This is a picture of the parking lot during a dance in the 1930's.

Salt Lake City in the early 1900's

An aerial view of Salt Lake City in 1939

I took this aerial photo of Temple Square in 1946. Can you spot the old Deseret Gym?

Looking south down Main Street from South Temple Street in 1947.

A view from near ZCMI looking south down Main Street in 1937.

A view from Third South looking north up Main Street in 1950.

The Utah Theater on Main Street.

The Capitol Theater on Second South in 1938. Notice the street car tracks which are still in place.

The old Sears building on the corner of Third South and Main in 1947.

The State Theater on State Street in 1947.

The Centre Theater on the corner of Third South and State Street also in 1947.

Warm Springs on the old Second West, now Third West in 1939.

This is a picture I took from the air looking east and down on the City of Murray. State Street, at the bottom, is nearly parallel to bottom of the picture. This was the center of Murray at that time in 1946. 4800 South is on the left angling up from the bottom to the top of the picture. Vine Street is near the center beginning at State Street and angling up to the right and bordering Murray Cemetery at 5600 South and continuing to the right and upward eventually crossing 900 East. The smoke covering Vine Street is rising out of the eastern part of Murray Park. The oval at right center is an equestrian track at Murray Park. The street just to the right of that track is 5300 South which intersects State Street just off the picture to the right. A new housing development is visible to the right, or south, of the equestrain track and across 5300 South. When I took this picture I was living in Sugar House but nine years later I bought a home in that same housing development.

This is a picture of the Murray Smoke Stakes at the intersection of State Street and 5300 South taken on the same flight as the picture above.

This is a view of Murray taken from Google Earth as of about 2007.

Transportation

A street car like this one served Sugarhouse on 7th East. This picture was taken in 1933.

Going into town our street car ran up 7th East to the Car Barns and turned onto 5th South and west to Main Street and on into town. This picture shows a street car turning off 5th South to head north into town on Main Street.

The trolley served Sugarhouse on 9th East. This picture was taken in 1934.

Three generations of transportation in SLC: the streetcar, the trolley and the bus. Picture taken in 1934.

Bamberger Station across the street from the old Temple Square Hotel in 1947.

Bamberger Station at Lagoon in 1912.

Air conditioned bus.

Salt Lake City Airport

Prewar aerial view of the Salt Lake City Airport.

My first ride in an airplane was in a WACO like this one.

In the late 1930’s we lived in the neighborhood where the owner of Seal’s Quality Market lived. They owned a WACO aircraft hangared at the old Salt Lake Airport pictures above. (I always thought the WACO aircraft was named after the city of Waco, Texas. Not so, I found out later. It is the acronym for Weaver Aircraft Co. located in Lorain, Ohio.) Seal’s youngest son, Boyd, and I were friends and he invited me on a few occasions to ride in their WACO which resulted in my interest in aviation and model building. (All three of the Seal’s children became airline pilots.) Seal’s Market was located one and a half blocks south of Liberty Park on the west side of 700 East. In those days the street car ran up and down 7th East from 33rd South past the car barns, now Trolley Square, to 5th South and on in to town on Main Street. The street cars stopped running in 1946 and in the mid 1950’s the street car tracks were removed from the middle 7th East and the street was widened to the west wiping out the homes and businesses on the west side of 7th East, including Seal’s Market. This resulted in 7th East becoming a main thoroughfare from the north at South Temple Street turning into Van Winkle Expressway at about 47th South and then connects with Highland Drive at about 60th South.

2006 view of SLC airport.

Prewar picture of a DC-3 at the SLC Airport.

The new Douglas DC-4E when it came to SLC, 21 May 1939. Our family is somewhere in that crowd, but I can't quite make out where.

A brief history of the DC-4

The designation DC-4 was used by Douglas Aircraft Company when developing the DC-4E as a large, four-engined type to complement its forthcoming DC-3 design. It was intended to fulfill United Air Lines' requirement for a long-range passenger airliner. The DC-4E (E stands for experimental) emerged as a 52-passenger airliner with a fuselage of an unusually wide cross-section for its day and a triple fin tail unit, similar to that later used by Lockheed on its Constellation.

The DC-4E first flew on June 7, 1938, and was used by United Air Lines for test flights. The aircraft proved to be ahead of its time - it was complicated to maintain and was uneconomical to operate. The DC-4E was sold to Japan, which was buying western aircraft for evaluation and technology transfer during this period. The design became the basis of the Nakajima G5N bomber. The sponsoring airlines, Eastern and United, decided to ask instead for a smaller and simpler derivative but before the definitive DC-4 could enter service the outbreak of the Second World War meant production was channeled to the US Army Air Force and the type given the military designation C-54. Additional versions used by the US Navy were designated R5D. The first aircraft, a C-54, flew from Clover Field in Santa Monica, California on February 14, 1942. The DC-4 had a notable innovation in that its nose-wheel landing gear allowed it to introduce a fuselage of constant cross-section. This lent itself to easy stretching into the later DC-6 and DC-7. 1,163 DC-4s were built for the United States military services between 1942 and 1946.

A DC-4 at the old SLC Airport terminal in 1952.

Saltair

Aerial view when the water level was low.

Entrance to Saltair in 1911 when the water level was high.

Swimming in the Great Salt Lake at Saltair about 1911.

View of the Saltair Pavilion in 1963

The famous Saltair Giant Racer.