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Show NFS Form 10-900-a Utah WordPerfect 5.1 Format (Revised Feb. 1993) OMB No. 10024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. 8 Page_3. Salt Lake Hardware Company Warehouse, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, UT creating a polarized business district with Mormon establishments located to the north. As Salt Lake evolved into a secular city, it began to assume characteristics of other American cities. In addition, the city became a commercial "hub" for the entire Intermountain region. The architecture came to reflect both the use of professional architects and the injection of commercial styles then popular in other areas. Social trends also fit into general patterns. Immigration, always important to the peopling of Utah, was now characterized by an influx of southern and eastern Europeans, and Asians, many of whom settled near the railroad terminals just west of downtown. It was here their ethnic communities and supportive businesses began. Warehouses and produce markets grew in this section of the city as well, as the commercial network of the city expanded. Salt Lake City, with its downtown and warehouse areas, became the major commercial point between Denver and the west coast. The Salt Lake Hardware Company was one of the major businesses in Salt Lake City and had already been in operation for a number of years prior to the construction of this warehouse. The small store which Benjamin F. Bauer first operated together with James T. Clasby and Henry A. Schweikhart was located in the old Alta block, later the site of the Ness building (c.1937). As business grew a new store was installed at the present site of the Capitol Theater (50 West 200 South). Continued growth soon necessitated a move in 1911 to a larger building at 257-59 South Main Street (later occupied by S.H. Kress Co.) which housed the retail store and business offices. The subject building served as the warehouse for a burgeoning retail and wholesale trade. By 1911 the Salt Lake Hardware Company had developed into the largest operation of its kind west of the Mississippi. The Salt Lake Hardware Company also had constructed warehouses in Pocatello (1916) and Boise (1927), Idaho and Grand Junction (1927), Colorado. Construction of this warehouse was begun in 1909 to meet the growing demands of the company. "There are few institutions in the country that find it necessary to invest a half million dollars in a building in which to transact business, and that a Salt Lake firm has done this shows the wonderful growth of business in Zion."4 Newspaper articles document its construction. "This great structure, the largest one of its kind in the country west from Chicago, is being erected ... just north of the Oregon Short Line depot, in order to carry the stock required to meet the demands of the trade of this firm."5 The building was built of timber (Oregon fir) construction and cut into four sections for fire protection. "Three electric elevators will raise and lower the stock from the several floors. ... on the ground floor there will be great traveling cranes that will handle all the heavy machinery throughout the building.... Eight big Salt Lake Tribune, April 11, 1909, p. 13. Salt Lake Tribune, November 8, 1908, p.3. X See continuation sheet |
