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One of the historic districts in Salt Lake, The East South Temple Historic District consists of that part of South Temple Street from State Street (100 East) to Virginia Street (1350 East) containing 10 1/2 large blocks on the south and 20 small blocks on the north, The street slopes gradually from east to west, and marks the boundary between the flatter areas of the original settlement and the steeper “dry bench” of the Avenues to the north. South Temple was the first stately residential boulevard in Utah. The district consists of that part of the street which continues to display many fine old homes of both architectural and historical significance. A. variety of buildings exists in the district, including large mansions, carriage houses, churches, commercial and office buildings, a school, hospital, medical clinics, clubhouses, apartment buildings and gas stations. The density of buildings per blockscape ranges from 1 to 12 with an average of 4.7 buildings per block elevation. Natural and geographic features are not prominent in the district.

The South Temple Historic District was added to the National Historic Register (#82004147) on July 14, 1982.

The district consists primarily of large, high-style residences built from the late 1880s through 1915. There are also a few small vernacular residences which survive, though moderately altered, as remnants of the street’s pioneer period. Larger buildings before 1930 include major religious architecture (cathedral of the Madeleine, First Presbyterian Church, Masonic Temple), as well as large, significant apartment projects (Eagle Gate, Maryland). A. number of buildings have been erected along South Temple Street since the historic period. Some of these, particularly the earlier structures, are architecturally compatible with the period buildings. Many of the most recent larger structures are inconsistent with the residential character of the street.

A large number of architectural styles are represented on South Temple. Many of the buildings are the best examples of their styles in Utah, as well as the best residential work of the architects who designed them. Examples include:

South Temple is significant as the first stately residential boulevard in Utah and remains today, much of it still residential, as a reminder of a lifestyle that is gone. It served as the only primary east-west route in early settlement days between the city and Red Butte Canyon, and Fort Douglas (established in 1862). The buildings which line this street from Third East to Virginia Street are unique reflections of some of the people who have greatly influenced the history and development of the state of Utah. Included in this group of people are: senators, governors, mayors and other political figures; mining men, who made their fortunes in the small mining towns surrounding the Salt Lake Valley and then used their new wealth to build impressive, ostentatious mansions for their families; and immigrant merchants who became financially successful. Along the street are many fine structures of both architectural and historical significance. The excellence of design and craftsmanship, the landscaping, and the diversity of periods and styles represented, sets the street apart from any other area of Salt Lake City.

South Side of South Temple (west to east)North Side of South Temple (west to east)
– State Street –– State Street –
100 E South Temple – Alta Club109 E South Temple – Eagle Gate Apartments
136 E South Temple139 E South Temple – Elks Club Building
140 E South Temple
150 E South Temple – Annex Apartments151 E South Temple
164 E South Temple – Priskos Parking Pavilion201 E South Temple
174 E South Temple – Grant House239 E South Temple – Covey & Buckingham Apartments
178 E South Temple
– 200 East – – A Street –
210-222 E South Temple – Also Crystal Palace275 E South Temple
242 E South Temple283 E South Temple
260 E South Temple – Hagensbarth House25 B Street
– 300 East –– B Street –
312 E South Temple319 East South Temple – John J. Daly House
326 E South Temple – Barbara Worth Apartments331 East South Temple – Cathedral of the Madeleine
338 E South Temple
348 E South Temple– C Street –
370 E South Temple12 C Street – First Presbyterian Church
411 E South Temple – Enos Wall Mansion
– 400 East –– D Street –
420 E South Temple427 E South Temple
430 E South Temple – Whitmore Oxygen Company435 E South Temple
434 E South Temple – Mrs. Backer’s Pastry Shop445 E South Temple
466 E South Temple455 E South Temple / 400 1st Ave
– 500 East –– E Street –
508 E South Temple481 E South Temple
505 E South Temple – Steiner American Building
– F Street –
550 E South Temple529 E South Temple – Keith-Brown Mansion
551 E South Temple – Ferguson Hall
555 E South Temple
576 E South Temple – Ezra Thompson, Jr. House559 E South Temple
– 600 East –– G Street –
610 E South Temple – Walker-McCarthey Mansion603 E South Temple – Thomas Kearns Mansion
630 E South Temple617 E South Temple – Epley/Glendinning House
650 E South Temple – Masonic Temple
666 E South Temple – Masonic Temple– H Street –
670 E South Temple – Masonic Temple633 E South Temple
678 E South Temple –  Emanuel Kahn Mansion641 E South Temple
649 E South Temple
667 E South Temple
– 700 East –– I Street –
702 E South Temple699 E South Temple
744-750 E South Temple701 E South Temple – Morris & Alice Evans House
754 E South Temple709 E South Temple
770 E South Temple
780 E South Temple– J Street –
731 E South Temple – Daniel C. Jackling Mansion
747 E South Temple
769 E South Temple
– 800 East –– K Street –
808 E South Temple – George M. Downey House777 E South Temple
824 E South Temple807 E South Temple
838 E South Temple837 E South Temple
848 E South Temple
850 E South Temple – Ladies Literary Club Building– L Street –
862 E South Temple839 E South Temple – Maryland Apartments
873 E South Temple
– 900 East –– M Street –
908 E South Temple935 E South Temple
920 E South Temple
926 E South Temple– N Street –
– Haxton Place –943 E South Temple – Filer/Godbe House
3-5 S Haxton Place951 E South Temple
966 E South Temple – George Stiehl House955 E South Temple
974 E South Temple – Frank Cameron House963 E South Temple
969 E South Temple
973 E South Temple – Phillip Wrigley House
– 1000 East –– O Street –
1050 E South Temple – Holy Cross Chapel1001 E South Temple
24 S 1100 E1007 E South Temple
1021 E South Temple
1027 E South Temple
1033 E South Temple
1037 E South Temple – David O. McKay House
– P Street –
1051 E South Temple
1053 E South Temple
1059 E South Temple
1061 E South Temple
1067 E South Temple
1081 E South Temple – Walker/Town Club House
– 1100 East –– Q Street –
1106 E South Temple – Patrick/Dolly Moran House1107 E South Temple
1108 E South Temple – Patrick Moran House1117 E South Temple
1116 E South Temple – Pedar Franklin House1127 E South Temple
1160 E South Temple – Wasatch Playground1135 E South Temple – Walter C. Lyne House
1164 E South Temple
1172 E South Temple– R Street –
1176 E South Temple30 R Street – Wasatch Elementary
1167 E South Temple – Hatfield-Lynch Home
1177 E South Temple – Armstrong Mansion
– 1200 East –– S Street –
1204 E South Temple1205 E South Temple – Markland/Walker House
1224 E South Temple1207 E South Temple – Mayflower Apartments
1228 E South Temple1219 E South Temple
1240 E South Temple1229 E South Temple – Louis Terry House
1242 E South Temple– T Street –
1244 E South Temple1259 E South Temple
1250 E South Temple1283 E South Temple – Mayflower Apartments
1256 E South Temple
1264 E South Temple – Ayres/McClain House– U Street –
1268 E South Temple – Ayres/Jacobs House1309 E South Temple
1274 E South Temple1317 E South Temple
1280 E South Temple – Knickerbocker Apartments1321 E South Temple – Federal Heights Apartments
– 1300 East –
– Virginia Street –

South Temple includes some of the best work by Utah’s major architects. Richard Kletting’s all-concrete Classical Revival mansion for Enos Wall is one of the largest of Kletting’s residential designs. Several of Frederick Male’s finest residences (including the Downey House, the Keith-Brown Mansion and the Markland house) and his Renaissance Revival Alta Club are on South Temple. Henry Ives Cobb, the New York architect who designed the Boston and Newhouse buildings on Exchange Place, did the Terry House, one of the most elaborate and academic Colonial-Georgian Revival houses in Utah. A number of other buildings on South Temple are among the very finest examples of their styles built in Utah and these include the Cathedral of the Madeleine, (C.M. Neuhausen) the First Presbyterian Church (Walter E. Ware), the Kearns Mansion (C.M. Neuhausen) and the Ladies Literary Club (Ware and Treganza). Two of the most architecturally significant apartment blocks are on South Temple, the Eagle Gate and the Maryland (Bernard O. Mecklenburg). The loss of significant buildings on South Temple, attributable in large part to the zoning changes of 1935 and 1959, shows the continuing prestige of South Temple addresses — even though the newer architecture does not reach the standards of the old.

The South Temple Historic District includes a significant deviation from the original plat of the city in Haxton Place. Purchased by James T. Keith, a Salt Lake dentist, Haxton Place is reportedly modeled after London’s street of the same name and was laid out by Englishman Thomas G. Griffin. Although a simple cul-de-sac with two pairs of stone and iron pillars at the entrance, Haxton Place is distinguished by the unique variants of various Colonial Revival designs built there.

South Temple became important as the major traffic route between Fort Douglas and the city after 1862. During this period the roadbed was crooked and covered with deep, fine dust ground by wheels of military wagons and wagons going to Red Butte Canyon for building stone. Peddlers and merchants made frequent use of the street, which was also a parade route.

The full force of Victorian architecture began to express itself on South Temple in the 1870s. The Gardo House, built in 1876 and designed by Joseph Ridges and William H. Folsom for Brigham Young’s wife, Amelia Folsom, was a splendid French Second Empire monument, unfortunately razed in 1926 for the Federal Reserve Bank. Old adobe homes were gradually replaced with larger structures and lots were subdivided, reducing open spaces and eliminating orchards.

The gaslight era (the 1880s) was no more evident than on South Temple. Earlier kerosene lights were replaced by gas lights supported by fancy metal standards. Electric lights appeared by 1900. Modern water and sewer systems were also installed in the 1890s, replacing the pioneer water ditches which had served for irrigation and culinary purposes.

The period from 1889-1893 marked the Utah Building Boom. Several fine residences in the new Victorian style — Shingle Style, Chateauesque and Eastlake — were built. Perhaps the period of heaviest growth for South Temple was 1889-1901 when the nouveaux-riche mining, railroad and commercial tycoons built opulent mansions on the street. Government officials like Mayor James Glendenning also were attracted to the street. Towers, pinnacles, vast porches and balconies, carved stone decoration, stained glass windows and imported materials, styles and craftsmen characterized the period.

Between 1900 and 1910 South Temple’s best known residences were built in 1900-1901. These include the mansions of Thomas Kearns, Enos Wall, and David Keith. Late Victorian and Neo-Classical Revival styles dominated the architecture. The dirt street, for so many years an inconvenience, was finally paved, first with brick and later with asphalt, in the early 1900s. The old rock wall which surrounded the city and ran along part of South Temple was dismantled and the orchards totally disappeared. By this time, oxen, mule and horse teams were being replaced by gas-powered automobiles. Jitney auto buses were gone. The street had the contrasts of beauty and utility, its palatial mansions serviced by a network of metal tracks, telephone poles and a thick web of electrical wires. Old church landmarks, including the Tithing Office, were replaced by the Bishop’s Building and Deseret Gym on North Temple and Hotel Utah on South Temple. The homes of early church leaders were replaced by turn-of-the-century apartments and club buildings: Eagle Gate Apartments, Covey and Buckingham Apartments, B.P.O.E. (Elks) Club, the Alta Club and the University Club. The change in land use spread to the east where older homes were replaced by the Romanesque Catholic Cathedral and the Gothic Presbyterian church.