Sugarhouse

Sugar House in the early 1900's

This is a collection of pictures, mostly from the picture collection at the Utah Historical Society at the Rio Grande Depot, I have compiled in the last few years because I grew up in Sugar House. (You can also view the blog http://www.class45-a.blogspot.com/ about three teenagers from Sugar House 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 Sugar House and South High on State Street. Also look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_arEtzRBPk for the Murray Stakes removal.

(A note about the confusing picture enlargement: (Ignore this if using a touch screen computer.) Unfortunately the format for enlarging the view of a picture has changed since I created this blog. Now for the enlargement of most of the pictures you left click on the picture and then return to the blog by clicking on the “X” in the upper right of the picture screen. On seven of the pictures the old method remains and I have added a note, in parentheses, at the end of the picture description to identify them. In these you still left click on the picture and a much better enlargement appears. You then use the scroll bars on the right and bottom of the picture to view the entire picture. Then click the back arrow in the upper left of the screen to return to the blog.)

This is a picture of the Sugar Factory after which Sugar House was named. The factory started operating in 1855 and was located on the southeast corner of 2100 South and Highland Drive (1100 East). The odd thing is that the factory never produced a grain of sugar, maybe because of lost or damaged sugar producing machinery parts during their delivery from the east by ox drawn wagons in 1852. It was later turned into a paper factory but the name of the area, Sugar House, stuck I guess because that name sounded better than Paper House.

In 1851 Deseret News suspended publication for three months, because of rags shortage for making paper. In 1854 a papermaking mill was established on Temple Square, in Salt Lake City, where rags were also used in the production of paper. In 1860 paper making machinery was installed at the old Sugar House Mill where it remained for more than twenty years. July 24th, 1861 the first paper was produced at Sugar House Paper Mill, initially using rags for paper production but latter used aspen logs which were ground into pulp. In 1882 the Sugar House Paper Mill closed and the equipment was moved to the building now known as The Old Mill in Big Cottonwood Canyon. More about the Old Mill later. The empty paper factory building was used as a woolen and bucket factory until 1928 when it was torn down.
 

I obtained this old Sugar House map from the files in the Sprague Library (which opened in 1928) when trying to piece together a brief history of Irving Junior High School. Some names and dates were not found. The first school in Sugar House District was a one room log building just a few yards behind (east of) the sugar mill, shown on this map without a name or date. The next adobe school house was built (probably in the late 1800’s) across the street and was used as a school, church and dance hall. Later a two-story brick schoolhouse was built east of the adobe one and was named Central School but later changed to Ashton School which was in the Granite School District of Salt Lake County. In 1910 it became part of the Salt Lake City School District and the name was changed to Irving (Elementary) School. In 1916 the old brick building was replaced by the modern Irving Junior High and the final addition was completed in 1929. (Continued under the picture of Irving below)

This is Sugar House on 21st South and Highland Drive (11th East) looking east toward Parley's Canyon. The old sugar/paper mill, in a previous picture, was located across Highland Drive from the Sugar House Obelisk where the Wasatch Service Station and Success Market are seen. Irving Junior High School can be seen to the left and behind the top of the obelisk. The Utah State Prison is just behind the middle of the Wasatch Service Station tower. (To get an enlarged view of this picture 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 in the 1930’s. The school closed in 1975 because of dwindling enrollment. It was badly damaged by a series of four arson fires from November 1990 to May 1992 and then transformed into Irving School Apartments May 2005. The facade of the east most portion of the school remains today and houses the office of an apartments complex.That is the portion of the school in which I took a woodshop class, in 1940, taught by Mr. Frank Eastmond who also owned the Saratoga Resort which he operated in the summertime. Saratoga was located at the northwest edge of Utah Lake which is now the entrance to the city of Saratoga Springs. See the last entry of this blog for a brief history of the Saratoga Resort.

The new Utah State Penitentiary - Sugar House 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 is an aerial view showing the beginning of the (Sugar House) Utah State Prison demolition in 1955, which is now Sugar House Park with Highland High School built on its eastern border. You can see that the cell block that paralleled 21st South Street has been removed, but the one to the south remains. Also notice the old work areas outside the prison walls. 

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

The obelisk located on 21st South and Highland Dr. (Left click on the picture and use scroll bars for a good enlargement.) 

Success Market located on 21st South and Highland Drive 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 Sugar House Obelisk, which was constructed in 1930, looking east from a point where 21st South splits, about one half block from Highland Drive.


Woolworth's Department Store, at about 1050 East 2100 South, under construction next to the original Snelgrove's Ice Cream store when this picture was taken in 1940.
Bob Peterson (1923-2011), who was a fellow graduate of U. S. Army Air Corps in 1945, Class of 45-A, was the assistant manager of the store in 1947 and he introduced me to my future wife, Elva (a tribute to her life can be viewed at (http://www.elvafarewell.blogspot.com/).

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

1955 aerial view of Sugar House's expansion to the south. Highland Drive is at the bottom and the D&RGW Railroad track runs diagonally from the bottom left, continuing under the bridge at 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 Sugar House expansion. Highland Drive is at the bottom similar to the 1955 photo above. I-80, in the upper right, was built through Sugar House in the early 1970's.

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 at 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 Sugar House but about 1600 South State Street, is where most of the kids living in Sugar House went to school. The South High building is now occupied by Salt Lake Community College. Most of the Sugar House kids now go to the new Highland High School which is located just east of where the Sugar House Prison stood. 

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.

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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 Sugar House 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 and golf course bear its name today.
The Cottonwood Paper Mill was built by the Deseret News. Workers used paper making equipment brought in from the old Sugar House Paper Mill to grind logs from nearby canyons into pulp and could produce up to 5 tons of paper per day. The Old Cottonwood Paper Mill was in operation for about 10 years. The completion of the new railroads made paper much cheaper to obtain and in 1892, the mill was sold to Granite Paper Mills Company.

The Old Mill in the 1920’s many years after a fire destroyed it.
On April 1, 1893, a fire broke out inside the building. There was a huge stockpile of paper that fed the fire and, many who heard the alarm thought it to be an April Fool's Day joke and so did not respond. The Old Mill was thus destroyed, leaving only a stone skeleton and bringing an end to large-scale papermaking in Utah. In 1927, the building was partially rebuilt for use as an open-air dance hall, known as The Old Mill Club, till the 1940's. In the 1970's and 1980's, the structure was used as a haunted house as well as a craft boutique.

This is a picture of the Old Mill parking lot during a dance in the 1930's. (Left click on the picture and use scroll bars for a good enlargement.) 

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? If you can't locate it look directly across the street (Main Street) from Temple Square and behind Hotel Utah. Hotel Utah was built in 1909 to 1911 and the original Deseret Gym construction started in 1910, just a few feet, directly behind (north of) the hotel and that is what you see in this picture. The gym was demolished in 1962 and was replaced by church office tower and plaza. A new Deseret Gym was built where the Church Conference Center now stands, which opened in 1993. I have not been able to find any pictures of that new Deseret Gym building. Hotel Utah has been expanded many times and it closed in 1987. It reopened after conversion to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in 1993. Now zoom in on South Temple and Main streets and look for just a small spot in the center of that intersection. That is the Brigham Young Monument and also notice Main Street continuing north past the Hotel Utah. In the background of the "Air conditioned bus" picture, in the Transportation section of this blog, you can see most of that monument (also the Temple), cars parked on Main Street plus a little of their history.

Looking south down Main Street in 1947 from the base of the Brigham Young Monument located in the center of the intersection of South Temple and Main. (Left click on the picture and use scroll bars for a good enlargement.) 

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 Theatre on 200 South in 1938.
The Capitol Theatre was originally built as the Orpheum Theatre in 1913 with a seating capacity of 2000. In 1927 it was remodeled as a play theater and a motion picture theater, also the name changed to Capitol Theatre. In the 1970's it was again remodeled and became a center for the performing arts. The theater's steel arch over 200 South was relocated to Trolley Square in 1973.

The old Sears building on the corner of Third South and Main in 1947. (Left click on the picture and use scroll bars for a good enlargement.) 

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 reason I took this picture was seeing a fire with a plume of smoke covering so much of Vine Street that I thought it might be a good idea to record it.) 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 Stacks at the intersection of State Street and 5300 South taken on the same flight as the picture above.

This picture of the iconic Murray smokestacks was taken by Kurt Ovard (who grew up in Murray and now resides in Sugar House) just a few days before their demolished on 6 August 2000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_arEtzRBPk. The Murray smokestacks were a prominent landmark which could be seen from all over the valley. Even the Salt Lake Airport Control Tower used them as a reference, back in the 1940’s and 50’s, for incoming airliners arriving from the east by telling the pilots to start a gradual right turn after passing the twin stacks in Murray and line up with runway 34. The short stack, 295 feet tall, was constructed in 1902 and the taller stack, 455 feet, in 1918, and both remained in use until 1949. Intermountain Healthcare and Costco’s now occupy that old American Smelting and Refining Company space as can be seen in the next picture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_arEtzRBPk/

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


Transportation

A street car like this one served Sugar House 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 Sugar House 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.
Maybe this picture should be in the previous section rather than the Transportation section of this blog because of the interesting history visible in the background of the bus.
The bus is turning left around the Brigham Young Monument from South Temple Street to the north onto Main Street, which no longer exists as a through street between North Temple and South Temple streets since 1993. The bronzed Brigham Young Monument was moved to the center of the intersection of South Temple and Main, as seen in the picture, in 1897. In 1993 it was again moved about 70 feet to the north when the above mentioned section of Main Street was closed and converted to the Main Street pedestrian plaza, which is an expansion of Temple Square (no longer a square) to the east.

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. Boyd flew Boeing 747's for United Airlines.) 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 cars 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 of 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, on the east side of the airport, in 1952.

Resorts

Entrance to Saltair in 1911 when the water level was high.
In 1893 the LDS church built Saltair (Saltair I), on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, about sixteen miles from downtown Salt Lake City. They also built the railroad connecting the resort with the city. The church wanted to provide "a wholesome place of recreation" for the families and also intended that Saltair be a "Coney Island of the West”. Saltair opened on Memorial Day 1893, and was officially dedicated on 8 June. Its main attractions were always swimming in the Great Salt Lake, where people could bob around like corks thanks to its 25 percent salt content and dancing on what was advertised as the world's largest dance floor; but the resort always had a wide range of other attractions. They included a roller coaster, a merry-go-round, a ferris wheel, midway games, bicycle races, touring vaudeville companies, boat rides on the lake and fireworks displays. Saltair reached the peak of its popularity in the early 1920s when it was attracting nearly a half-million people a year. However, in April 1925 it burned to the ground. Raymond J. Ashton and Raymond L. Evans designed a new pavilion along the general lines of the original one, and it was built the next year (Saltair II), but the resort never regained its former popularity. During the 1930s it had to battle the effects of the Great Depression; high maintenance costs as winds and salt spray ate away at wood and paint; a $100,000 fire in 1931; and receding lake levels, which in 1933 left it a half mile from the water. Saltair closed down during World War II. It reopened with high hopes after the war but continued to struggle, and it closed for good after the 1958 season. During the 1960s efforts to save it failed, and it stood forlorn and abandoned until fire destroyed it in November 1970. - In 1981 a new pavilion (Saltair III) was built about 2 miles south of the original site. It opened in July 1982, but struggled to survive as the lake first reached its highest level in history by 1984, putting the pavilion's main floor under five feet of water. In the late 1980s the water began to recede. Concerts and other events have been held at the newest facility, but by the end of the 1990s, Saltair was little more than a memory, too small to compete with larger venues which are closer to the public. While there was occasionally activity now and then, through most of the early twenty-first century, the third Saltair has been all but abandoned.

Swimming in the Great Salt Lake at Saltair I about 1911.

Aerial view of Saltair II when the water level was low in 1933. Notice the miniature railway track that was built to carry swimmers from the rear of the resort to and from the water.

View of the Saltair II Pavilion in 1963.

The famous Saltair Giant Racer.

View of the Saltair III (built in 1981) as it looks today.

View of the Saltair III under water in 1982.

Saratoga  --  Sugar House was sort of the central location of three amusement parks, Lagoon, near Farmington, Saltair, on Great Salt Lake and Saratoga, west of Lehi on the northwest edge of Utah Lake. Saratoga was the oldest swimming resort in Utah. The Hot Springs at Saratoga first received attention in 1856 when several Indian renegades (including a squaw) of Chief Tintic were found slain nearby. Seven years later, the hot springs were first used by a young Austrian painter to irrigate an apple orchard. The location soon became a popular picnic area. A New York State Park Co. moved in and began duplicating their New York Spa. The resort was named Saratoga after their famous New York Spa. An inside pool was constructed with a large picnic pavilion and dance hall. Later, a cafe and outside pool were built. In 1928, the resort was purchased by Frank Eastmond and his wife, Clarrissa, from the Austin Brothers. Impressed with the possibilities of the hot springs, Mr. Eastmond immediately installed one of the finest and most modern filtering systems for the swimming pools. He operated his resort in the summertime and taught school at Irving Junior High, in Sugar House, in the wintertime. By 1953, Frank Eastmond was semi-retired, and his sons leased and operated the resort. Desiring to convert the swimming resort into an amusement park, they purchased their first amusement ride, the Kiddie Planes. November 23, 1961 Frank Eastmond (1892-1961) and his wife were killed in an automobile accident on a trip to California. In April of 1963 R. M. (Mick)" Eastmond, who grew up working at Saratoga and learned the business from his father, obtained control of and lived at the resort. In 1966 Saratoga had 30 midway rides and games, four natural warm spring swimming pools, arcade, miniature golf course, a boat harbor which offered lake cruises along with other facilities. With its 1,700 foot air strip, Saratoga was the only resort in Utah that could be reached by airplane, automobile and boat. (From an 8 page article in the May 27, 1966 edition of the Salt Lake Tribune.)  --  (The following is a summary of an article in the June 30, 1995 issue of the Deseret News about the demise of Saratoga Park.)  Saratoga, known mostly for its hot spring pools, and eventually 35 amusement park rides and games, made it a popular destination during its heyday in the '60s and early '70s. Some of the fondest memories of Saratoga are of the dance pavilion with its indoor/outdoor dance floor and original pool building, which were both consumed by fire in 1968. One of Saratoga's most ill-fated events was holding a rock concert in the park by the headline British rock band, Deep Purple. But Deep Purple never performed its hit songs, or any of its other music for that matter. Several warm-up acts blew out the stage's power source, and without a backup generator, the angry concertgoers erupted into a raucous crowd that ripped out toilets from the bathrooms and tore down walls. It took 100 police to herd those people out of the park. By the late 1970’s nearly 200 people were employed by the park during the summers. Later, in 1980, a three-story high water slide was installed as a new attraction. The 350-foot long "Kamakazi" was among Utah's first water slides when it debuted. The resort had three of it best years following the slide opened. What probably caused the collapse of Saratoga was what made it famous to begin with - water. Utah Lake rose to its highest level on record during the flood of 1983, which was a real blow to Saratoga because the entire harbor was inundated. Saratoga, the once-popular and last resort on Utah Lake, which comprised about 30-acre, was slowly being dismantled. It was later sold to a group of investors who planned to incorporate the swimming pool, old pavilion and boat harbor into a 600-acre Saratoga Springs massive housing development.