| OCR Text |
Show Street Address: 15 South Main, Salt Lake City__________ site No:____ Architect/Builder:_____William Folnom and Obed Taylor_________________ Building Materials: iron Building Type/Style: Description of physical appearance & significant architectural features: (Include additions, alterations, ancillary structures, and landscaping if applicable) The original ZCMI building had a frontage of fifty feet by a depth.of 318 feet; three stories high, plus a full basement. The whole interior was chiefly lighted by sky lights. The present store front is a window wall of three matching sections built at three different times. Rows of Corinthian columns divide the windows. These columns are of cast iron in the center (1876) and south (1880) portions but of heavy stamped sheet metal in the north (1901) portion. There is a modillion cornice at ea.ch level and also in the rake of the pediment. The top cornice has brackets aligned with the columns below and a row of dentils under the modillions, which are larger than those of the cornices below and ornamented with an acanthus leaf. Under the pediment is a frieze which extends across the center portion of the storefront. It contains large letters 'ZCMI 1 balanced on each side with circular frames containing the date of founding, 1868, on the left and the date of the pediment construction, 1901, on the right. The rest of the frieze contains a connecting vine and leaf pattern. Above the top cornice antefixes project in alignment with the columns below. They are typical of much of the ornament which is of light sheet metal formed over wood. The windows are double hung wood sash two-over-two glazed with obscure glass. Upper corners of sash and frame are rounded. These windows are Statement of Historical Significance: Construction Date: 187(0 The ZCMI storefront ""now serves as the front entrance to the ZCMI shopping mall. It has been dismantled, restored and reconstructed to fit the new building, but parts of this facade were once attached to the original ZCMI store, built in 1875. ZCMI, the "mercantile palace," opened in 1876 and grew so rapidly that a three-story, south wing addition was built in 1880. In 1902, the north wing was increased to three stories to correspond with the rest of the building. The front facade, as it appears now, was built after the completion of this new addition to join the three units into a single storefront.1 ZCMI was originally organized on October 15, 1868, in Council Hall as Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2 "The ZCMI system was set up in anticipation of the influx of non-Mormon merchants who would come into the territory via the transcontinental railroad which was joined in Utah in 1869. By consolidatin the various Mormon commercial enterprises, prices were lowered and both Mormon and Gentile patrons supported the ZCMI stores, driving many of the Gentile establishments out of business."3 This was part of an organized effort by Mormon leaders to create an independent, self-sufficient society. This segment from the original constitution of ZCMI seems to bear out this concept: "This inhabitants of Utah, convinced of the impolicy of leaving the trade arid commerce of their territory to be conducted by strangers, have resolved, in public meeting assembled, to unite into a system of co-operation for the transactionof their own business."^" Brigham Young was the first president of ZCMI, with other prominent church leaders filling the Board of Directors. Thirty thousand shares of v/ere initially sold for $100 each. Stockholders however had to have their tithing and be of good moral character. 5 Ownership of ZCMI was nally semi-public, but the major decision-making power rested, and on the") shoulders of the church. |
