Things to do / Travel Guide
Mormons, miners, and the railroad tracks that meandered through northern Utah (earning it the title “Crossroads of the West”) all helped shape the region's architectural attractions. From magnificent tabernacles and temples to common cottages and cabins, a stroll amidst northern Utah's architecture is a great eye-opener to the region's opulence and history.
Mormon Architecture in Northern Utah
White terracotta brick fashioned in a Modern Italian Renaissance style, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (formerly the Hotel Utah) on East South Temple in Salt Lake City was finished in 1911. Today, the opulent interior is preserved with its elegant lobby complete with marble columns, a stained-glass ceiling, and elaborate chandeliers. The building currently houses the Family Search Center with computers to search the Mormon Church's vast genealogical records. You can tour the building or search the records at no extra charge.
Talk a walk around Salt Lake City's 10-acre Square for a glimpse of some of the city's most impressive examples of Mormon architecture. The six-spired Salt Lake Temple (open only to baptized Mormons, but still stunning from the outside) is one of Historic Temple Square's most dramatic structures. The red-sandstone foundation was put in place in the 1850s, but the building was not officially finished until 1892. The building features 16-foot-thick granite walls (from stone quarried at Little Cottonwood Canyon) and a 22-karat gold-covered statue of the angel Moroni embellishing one of the 210-foot spires. Another noteworthy architectural highlight is the domed-roof Tabernacle, home to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Architect Henry Grow designed the 150-foot-wide roof without center supports using bridge-building techniques. The over-11,600 pipes of the magnificent Tabernacle organ are also worth your perusal. Nearby sits the Beehive House, completed in 1854, the former home of Brigham Young and a beautifully restored “fairy castle,” complete with period furnishings and interesting embellishments (be sure to visit the Lion sculpture and 6,000-pound eagle adornment). The Mormon Church offers free tours of Historic Temple Square in about 30 different languages, leaving from the flagpole in the center of the plaza every few minutes, and an on-site tour to the Beehive House is also free of charge.
Gargoyles greet you with their grizzly gazes at the 1906 sandstone Madeleine Cathedral on East South Temple in Salt Lake City. A catholic landmark, Madeleine Cathedral, designed by German-born Carl Neuhausen, features a Romanesque exterior with a decidedly Gothic interior, including brightly-colored frescoes. The church is open to the public seven days a week.
Standing as testimony to northern Utah's rich silver-mining history is the limestone Kearns Mansion on East South Temple, paid for by the silver mined by Thomas Kearns (also a former U.S. Senator and publisher of the Salt Lake Tribune), designed by Carl Neuhausen, and completed in 1902. With turrets, balconies, adornments, and embellishments that render this magnificent 28-room mansion reminiscent of a French chateau, the palatial estate now serves as the Utah governor's official residence and has regularly been visited by world dignitaries. Admission and tours are free on weekdays.
Striking both inside and out, the Union Pacific Station on South Temple at 400 West was designed by John D., Patterson in 1909 and cost $300,000 to build (almost $6.5 million in today's terms). A splendidly-restored reminder of the significance of the railroad to northern Utah, the depot features a slate-shingle mansard roof (typical of French Second Empire styles) and elaborate Western-themed murals and stained-glass windows inside.
Modeled after the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC, the Utah State Capitol (completed in 1915) on the north end of State Street, designed by Richard Kletting, is a beautiful representation of Renaissance Revival-style architecture. The stately Ionic columns and Georgian marble are probably what helped run up the total bill to a whopping $2.74 million (about $53 million in today's terms). Tours of the building are offered every half hour on weekdays.
Modern Architecture in Northern Utah
Having opened its doors for business in 1979, the Maurice Abravanel Hall was designed by acoustics expert Dr. Cyril M. Harris. Harris, who also participated in the remodeling of Avery Fisher Hall in New York City and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC mimics the rectangular shape and convex, curved walls and ceilings of some of the world's most noteworthy symphony halls. The lobby of the brick building in which it is housed features a fascinating four-story high ceiling made from white oak and brass, as well as a 5,400-square-foot glass wall.
The behemoth Delta Center, home to the Utah Jazz NBA team, is one of Salt Lake City's biggest architectural feats. Completed in 1991 and located on West South Temple, the 20,500-seat arena features a roof structure that weighs close to 3 million pounds. The exterior façade was built with more than 2,600 individual panes of insulating glass, and the structural frame required more than 7.6 million pounds of reinforcing steel.
Touted as one of the most-well-designed public libraries in the U.S., the Salt Lake City Public Library building (2003) on East 400 South features a fascinating combination of high-, arched-ceilinged atriums, walls of reflective glass, and a six-story-high curving, “walkable” wall. Using natural light and wide glass panels, architect Moshe Safdie highlighted Salt Lake City's natural, surrounding beauty; a roof-top garden with 360º views of the Salt Lake Valley, including the Wasatch Mountain Range. This magnificent example of modern architecture also features four fireplaces strategically located on different floors to resemble a column of flame (from an external vantage point).
Other Northern Utah Architectural Attractions
For some interesting architectural attractions outside of Salt Lake City, take a walk along Park City's Main Street National Historic District where you can see the surviving 19th-century structures that reflect the town's colorful mining history, including shotgun homes, cabins, “T” and Pyramid cottages, among other historic constructions. Ogden's Historic 25th Street features two blocks of restored blacksmith shops and livery stables, among other historic buildings. Tourist information desks at Union Station offer brochures detailing these buildings, and the 1924 Mediterranean-style depot on Wall Ave is, itself, worth a visit. Also in Ogden is Peery's Egyptian Theater, a unique, ornately-decorated, Egyptian-Revival, amphitheater-style hall; a rarity both in Utah and the U.S. as a whole. Peery's Egyptian Theater, built in 1924 and designed by top-notch local architects Leslie S. Hodgson and Myrl A. McClenahan, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is used as a performing arts stage and movie palace. The Ogden Temple and Tabernacle on Washington Boulevard is an impressive ultra-modern 1972 structure made from white cast stone and reflective glass. The central gold spire and strikingly stark exterior is similar to that of the Provo Mormon Temple on Temple Hill Drive, both of which were given an intentionally functional “economic” design by Emil B. Fetzer. The Provo Temple was also finished in 1972 (all Mormon temples are only open to baptized Mormons).
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