First Security Bank Building
1955, W. Sarmiento, St. Louis, and Slack Winburn, SLC

Completed in 1955, the First Security Bank Building was the first major addition to Salt Lake City’s downtown skyline in nearly 30 years. The economic collapse of the Great Depression and the need to direct construction materials toward military efforts during World War II virtually halted all downtown building projects. After decades of scarcity, Salt Lake City residents saw the First Security Bank as a sign of renewed prosperity.

The First Security Bank Building was Utah’s first major modern building. A skin of glass and porcelain-coated steel panels hangs on the building’s steel frame. Proud of this step toward modernity, local newspapers repeatedly likened the First Security Bank to the United Nations Building in New York.

First Security Bank President George S. Eccles hoped the building would become the “center of an expanded downtown.” Salt Lake City’s downtown, however, did not continue the southward march it began in the 19th century. Like in many American cities, new businesses began to locate in the suburbs rather than downtown during the 1950s and 1960s.*

405 South Main Street in Salt Lake City, Utah