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Show United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB No. 1024-0018, NPS Form National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. 8 Page 4 Capitol Hill Historic District (Boundary Increase), Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, UT businesses made the Capitol Hill neighborhood more attractive to tradesmen than farmers. The 1850 census shows the average number of children per household was five to six. A large number of unrelated boarders or guests were found in households throughout the area. This was most likely because of the proximity of Union Square, one of the blocks set aside for public use in the original plat. For many years, Union Square (located between 200 and 300 North, and 300 and 400 West just south of the boundary increase area) was a popular campsite for immigrant wagon trains and handcart companies. 17 The first public building constructed in the increase area was an adobe schoolhouse built in 1852 at the corner of 500 North and 300 West (demolished by the turn of the century). Prior to this 19th ward members held meetings at the Warm Springs Bath House (site of the Warm Springs Park just north of the increase area), and in members' homes. In 1866, a meetinghouse for the 19th ward replaced the schoolhouse. The meetinghouse was demolished in the 1890s. By the time of the 1860 census, the number of households in the area had doubled. Only thirty-six men are listed as farmers or farm laborers. Most had very specific occupations (e.g. nail maker, machinist, gardener), or owned businesses (blacksmith, tanner, millwright etc.). The census taker listed several unoccupied households, an indication that at least a few of the settlers who left Salt Lake City during the Utah War of 1857-1858 didn't return. 18 Victorian Urbanization and the Coming of the Railroad, 1870-1910 Historians generally agree that the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10,1869, is a benchmark in Utah's history: the official end of the pioneer era in Utah. In January of 1870, the IDS Church-sponsored Utah Central Railroad completed a line connecting Salt Lake City to the transcontinental line at Ogden. In 1872, Union Pacific acquired control of the Utah Central, as well as interests in another Mormon railroad, the Utah Southern, which ran south from Salt Lake to Provo. 19 The 400 West corridor provided the best grade and location for the tracks, and within a few years a warehouse district had developed next to the city's central business district. The coming of the railroad had a direct effect on the nearby neighborhoods. Small businesses had always been present in the boundary increase area from the first settlement, but the railroad encouraged large-scale enterprises. By the time of the 1889 Sanborn map, the Utah Central-Union Pacific Railroad had laid six lines of track near 500 West. The 1898 Sanborn map shows that in the decade before the turn of the century, the Oregon Short Line Railroad (incorporated by Union Pacific/Utah Northern Railway) 17 Union Square was the location of the University of Deseret beginning in 1884. The school was renamed the University of Utah in 1896, and relocated next to Fort Douglas on the east bench of Salt Lake City in 1900. 18 During the Utah War Brigham Young was faced with the possibility of a military force of 2,500 marching on Salt Lake City accompanying a new federally appointed governor. In March 1858 Young ordered all residents of northern Utah settlements to abandon their homes and prepare to burn them. Later that spring the conflict was resolved and on June 26 Johnston's army marched through a deserted Salt Lake City to established Camp Floyd forty miles to the southwest. Most of the city's residents returned to their homes later that year. 19 Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-Day Saints, 1830-1900, (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, reprint 1993), 270-282. |
