| OCR Text |
Show Recreation Center at the Utah State Hospital Description continued: building was constructed in recent years immediately to the south of the amphitheatre to accommodate restrooms and service functions. Total number of contributing buildings and structures: 1 Total number of noncontributing buildings: 1 History continued: The Recreation Center was built in 1936-37 as one of several WPA projects undertaken at that time at the Utah State Hospital for the mentally handicapped. Other projects included the construction of the superintendent's residence, the remodeling of the Central Administration Building, upgrading of the heating plant, and miscellaneous repairs and maintenance to the grounds of the 320-acre facility. 1 The Recreation Center was to be the "first step in a great plan to transform the barren, pitted hillside behind the hospital into a park and playground." Dr. Garland H. Pace, superintendent of the hospital at that time, explained the purpose of the facility: "One of the best and most neglected ways to mental health is through play and recreation." The amphitheatre was to form "the nucleus around which will be developed play areas, including four tennis courts, a handball court, and many other improvements of the sort. There will be picturesque paths winding over terraces and into gardens sheltered by retaining walls."2 Few, if any, of those improvements were made, however. The Recreation Center is the only facility set against the otherwise undeveloped hillside east of the hospital. Plans for the Recreation Center and for the surrounding landscaping scheme were worked up by Lavar S. Morris, a professor in landscape architecture at nearby Brigham Young University. Morris also supervised the work at the site.3 The stone amphitheatre of the Recreation Center is one of three similar structures which have been identified in Utah. The other two are located at the Utah State Training School in American Fork and at Utah State University in Logan. All three amphitheatres were built as federal public works projects in either the 1930s or '40s. Although a complete study of amphitheatres has not been completed, it appears that these three are some of the largest and earliest amphitheatres built in Utah. The Recreation Center amphitheatre differs from the other two in that it has towers and substantial interior rooms. The facility is still used by the hospital, and it is also used as a theatre for public performances, operating under the name "Castle Theatre." Notes Herald, August 19, 1936, Sec. 5, p. 4. Ibid. 3 Ibid. |
