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Show OMB No 102-4·0018. NPS Form United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. § Page § Price Main Street Historic District, Price, Carbon County, UT businesses also included amusement and ente11ainrnent establishments. such as the Eko Thealer, at 32 West . Main Street, built in 1912 and still standing. 10 Main Street expansion was not limited to business growth, alone. At the east end o::f Main Street, near the city hall , the LDS Church built a new tabernacle at 100 East and Main Street ; the Methc:)dist Church constructed a ne\v church building across the street east of City Hall; and, a new County.Courthouse was built, across the street to the south of the tabernacle. All of this construction had been completed by ] 914. 11 ] 914 also saw the establishment of a chamber of commerce, organi zed by about 40 businessmen. Me::rnbership applications soon reacl1ed nearly one hundred. The first automobile took to tbe higb,vay in the United States in 1893. 12 \Vitbin just t\venty years, even in remote Utab tbere was a grO\ving need for improved roads to handle automobile traffic. Jn 1913 the Utah legislature authorized the construction of the Midland Trail, a new higbw ay intended to extend west from .the Colorado state line through Cisco and Green River, thence north thmugh Price, Co ]ton, Spanish Fork and Salt Lake City, and finally extend to Brigham City and around the north end of the Great Salt Lake to Nevada. This road '''as completed through Price the following year. As the railroad had a generat:ion earlier, this automobile link to the north and other regional communities to the south and west enhanced Price's significance and economic control in the area. The First World War seems to have barely slowed the consistent and continued growth of Price and its Main Street business district . The 19 18-1919 P olk Directory r ported a population of 2,000, and noted Price's imponance as "the center of a large live _tock, coal mining, agricultural and fruit raising section.'' 13 The Directory also provides a glimpse at the cultural diversity for which Price had become known . Surnames in the directory include "foreign-sounding" names (at least to the more established Mannon and Protestant settlers with nmiheastern U.S., British, and Scandinavian ancestry) such as Bonacci, Broeker, Dragates, Grosso, Klapaki, Kopf, Nakagawa, Pappas, Viglia, Yukawa, and numerous others. Many o::fthese immigrants bad become managers of local businesses or business owners themselves . By the mid 1920s, Price's Main Street could boast additional banks and numerous small business buildings. 1924 Sanborn maps show that commercial buildings bad been completed along Main Street to 100 East, with few empty lots in between . 14 The Polk Directory of the same year complemented Price's business community: "Because Price is the commercial center for a vast teJTitory the business section would do credit to a town of more than twice its size in population." 15 The Directory also noted that Price had '"1hree good banks ... sixteen hotels and a number of practically all kinds ofretail business finns." 16 Buildings o:f note completed during this 10 The Eko Theater, later the Utah Theater and now the Crown Theater, is still operated as a movie 'theater but has been substantially altered. Alterations are in-pe riod and do not diminish its significance or integrity. 11 Ron ald G. Watt, City of Diversity; A History of Price, Utah (Utah State Historical Society, 1997) p. 42. 12 History of Highway Development in Utah (Utah State Depa rtment of Highways, 1967) p. 112. 13 Utah State Gazetteer & Business Directory, 1918-1919, R.L . Polk & Co ., Salt Lake City, p. 164. 14 Price, Carbon County, Utah, 1924, Sanborn Map Company, p. 7-8. 15 Utah State Gazetteer & Business Directory, 1924-1925, R.L . Polk & Co. , Salt Lake City, p. 169. 16 Ibid. |
