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Show 9/18120tS Historic Eagle Gate a prominent Salt Lake landmark Deseret News Historic Eagle Gate a prominent Salt Lake landmark By Marc Haddock , For the Deseret News Published : Friday, Sept. 18201511 :15 a.m. MDT SALT LAKE CITY - For more than 150 years, the Eagle Gate has been one of downtown Salt Lake City's most prominent landmarks. The Eagle Gate used to be the entrance to the Lion I-louse and the Beeh ive House, as seen at the turn of the century. (Deseret News Archives) Built in 1859 to mark the entrance to Brigham Young's farmland as well as City Creek Canyon, the monument has been altered four times - as State Street became a public thoroughfare and later was widened, first to accommodate electric street cars and then to handle the growing automobile traffic in downtown Salt Lake. Travelers haven't had to pay a toll to pass through the Eagle Gate to City Creek Canyon since 1882, when State Street opened to the public. And while the gate has been taken down at times, it has always been replaced close to its original location on State Street and South Temple. As LDS Church President David O. McKay noted in 1963, when the current gate was dedicated: "Over the years many attempts have been made to remove the old eagle and its perch in the interest of progress, better traffic control and for esthetic reasons, but they came to naught and the gate has remained as a famous landmark." Deseret News photographers and others have taken pictures of the gate as it has been transformed, along with the buildings once enclosed by the fence the gate served - the Lion House, the Beehive House and the old Tithing Office. Photo researcher Ron Fox has searched the newspaper archives for many of these photos, which can now be seen on the newspaper Web site at desereinews.coI11. A 1984 architect's rendering shows Eagle Gate Plaza and Tower prior to construction. http://www .deseretnews.com/article/printf700020286/Historic-Eagle-Gate-a-prominent-Salt-Lake-landmark.htm l 1/3 |
