City Creek Canyon is significant as a large, open park area near the center of Salt Lake City. The first park in the city to take advantage of existing natural terrain, the park is defined by the edges of the shallow canyon, which separates the Capitol Hill area from the Avenues. The park documents the efforts of city improvement groups, part of a national movement that saw the organization of such federations as the American Civic Association/ devoted to the promotion of civic improvement and city planning. Part of the park includes Memory Grove, a memorial park created after World War I.
The district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (#80003919)
Because of the strong geographic boundaries of the canyon, a small group of residences are popularly associated with the canyon area and are included in the historic district. Replacing earlier homes built in the area the houses were built in styles typical of the period from 1880 from 1920. They include residences of the families of Mornom apostles Erastus Snow and Parley P. Pratt, and several other prominent Mormon Church leaders.
In the 1860’s and 1870’s Brigham Young gave and sold sections of the area to members of his family and to his friends. Several of these people built houses in the lower section of the canyon mouth, probably because the canyon was wider at that point. The upper section of the canyon area remained undeveloped because it was narrower and more difficult to reach. P.J. Moran, a construction firm, and the city water works were developed in this area.
The city acquired the upper section of the canyon in 1902 when a Mrs. Young sold some property in the canyon to the city. That same year the city council passed a resolution suggesting that the canyon be made into a park because it was a natural site for recreation and there was no park in the area. The council also voted to ask the city engineer to straighten the channel of City Creek and build a sixty-six foot road between State Street and Canyon Road. The park would be called City Creek Park and it would be open for the use of the citizens of Salt Lake.
Although the city passed the resolution to create the park in 1902 and similar suggestions were made during the next few years, the first improvements were not made until 1914. At that time some trees were planted by the mayor. The major developments in the park did not come until after World War I, however. At that time the Service Star Legion, a group of women whose sons had served during World War I, asked the city if the area could be set aside as a memorial to those who died during the war. A similar park had been made in Baltimore in 1919 by the Legion. The city agreed to the proposal, and the area was dedicated as a manorial park in 1924. Since then a number of monuments have been added and it is now a memorial to all men and women who lost their lives in defense of their country.
South of Memory Grove there are two small green areas in the center of Canyon Road. Originally Canyon Road had been built in two sections, with one side on each side of the City Creek. In 1909 the city decided to put the creek underground to protect the water supply and to prevent accidental drownings in the creek. About that time the residents of the area petitioned the city to make the creek bed that was being filled in into park areas. By 1912 a small formal park had been completed on the strip between 3rd and 4th Avenue and a green area was constructed in the park area above 4th Avenue.
Today Memory Grove and the small Canyon Road parks are unique in Salt Lake City and very unusual for downtown settings in large cities. The parks are within a few blocks of the downtown shopping center, yet since they are set in the mouth of a canyon, they are isolated from the bustle of city life. People from all walks of life use the park to escape from their daily routines.
The district also contains fifty-two residences, of which there are six landmarks, thirty-five contributory and seven non-contributory houses.
In the 1860’s and 1870’s, Bri^iam Young started to divide his property in the area. Much of it went to his children who later sold it to Salt Lake residents. The first homes were built in the area in the 1880’s. In 1880 Helaman Pratt, a son of Parley P. Pratt, acquired some property from J.C. Kinsberry, who owned a mill in the area. Pratt built a house in the area that is still standing. In the early 1890’s Franklin Richards Snow, a son of Erastus Snow, bought the house. Snow was instrumental in forming the Consolidated Wagon and Machinery Company, a leading Salt Lake City business, and he later became an investment broker. His sons and sons-in-law were among those that built other houses in the Canyon Road Subdivision.
Snow was born in Salt Lake in 1854 and his family moved to St. George in 1862. In 1888 he cams to Salt Lake and started the Consolidated Implement Company with his brother George H. Snow. He served as secretary and treasurer of the company and the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company. He later became an investment officer.
Snow was an active member of he Mormon Church. He was the first stake superintendent of religion classes and on the High Council. He was also a counselor to the stake president, Richard W. Young.
Later Pratt’s brothers, Mathoni and Parley P. Pratt, Jr. also built in the area. Mathoni built his house in 1887 and it is still standing. Qrson F. Whitney, an assistant LDS Church Historian, bishop, and Mormon Apostle, bought his home in 1905. Whitney is also remembered for his three volume History of Utah. Parley P. Pratt Jr. ‘s home has been replaced by an apartment building, but two small houses that his widow, Brigamenia, built are still standing.
Another pioneer who lived in the area was Erastus Snow, one of the first members of Brigham Young’s party to enter the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Snow lived in St. George for most of his life. Erastus Snow was a polygamist and in 1888 he built the house on Canyon Road for his second wife, Minerva. Snow died in the house that same year.
One of the most unusual sites in the area is Ottinger Hall. The hall was built in 1900 by the Volunteer Fireman Association and is listed on the National Register.
The houses in the City Creek Cmypn Historic District are similar to the houses built in the Avenues and in Capitol Hill. The majority of them were built between 1880-1919 and are similar to the houses built in Salt Lake during that period.
The four houses that were built in the 1880s are mainly high pioneer and early Victorian style. The Minerva Snow house is a high style pioneer architectural plan while the Blair-Alt home which was built during the sane period of time represents early Victorian style. Five houses were added to the area during the 1890s. They are mainly vernacular with some elements of Italianate and Eastlake. The Hermann Anderson house is one of the best examples of Eastlake ornament in Salt Lake City.
The majority of the homes in the district were built between 1900-1920 which was the tine that Salt Lake was experiencing a great deal of growth. In the 1910s bungalows and pattern book houses were constructed. The six homes built in the 1920s were bungalows, influenced by Tudor and Prairie styles.
The City Creek Canyon Historic District is a large park area with a small residential section at the south end. The parks and the homes document an important era of city growth and civic improvement.
Sites in the City Creek Canyon Historic District
Preservation Utah‘s pamphlet from the 53rd Annual Historic Homes Tour of the City Creek Canyon Historic District on May 18, 2024 said this about the district:
In the early years of settlement, City Creek was an essential source of water for residents of Salt Lake City. However, City Creek was also subject to intense, destructive floods, and an aqueduct constructed in the late 1860s failed to control flooding, so in the early 1900s the creek was enclosed in a concrete pipe that ran under Canyon Road and still runs under North Temple Street today.
City Creek was also the source of power for various mills and a foundry. The most notable enterprise was Brigham Young’s Empire Mill located just north of the current site of Memorial House that served as the namesake for the canyon tract (basically, the entire canyon) that was deeded to Young in 1857 by the territorial legislature. For years, entry to the canyon was controlled through the Eagle Gate, and those desiring to enter were required to pay a toll.
In the 1870s, Brigham Young began apportioning land in City Creek Canyon to family and friends. But residential development happened slowly with the first homes not constructed until the 1880s. As late as 1900, only a handful of residents inhabited the canyon, perhaps due to the fact that floods still regularly raged down the canyon. But with the turn of the century and the construction of the pipeline, construction accelerated and by 1920 the number of houses had more than quadrupled. This same period saw the development of City Creek Park, the oval occupying the center of the neighborhood. By 1940, City Creek had been built out, and the neighborhood that you see today has changed little since.
The City Creek neighborhood is distinctive because of its setting-unlike that of any other in Salt Lake City-with houses crowding the canyon sides and clustered along the creek. Because of its unique character, City Creek was designated a historic district in 1980. But the canyon also provides a distinctive setting for the house on East Capitol Street. Sitting as it does along the canyon. rim, it faces the canyon and is as much of the canyon as it is of Capitol Hill. (In fact, until the late 1920s East Capitol Street was called West Canyon Road.) And the home on Third Avenue sits at the canyon mouth, where the canyon opens to the city, and for years would have been just steps away from the creek.
So this year’s tour is in many ways as much about setting as it is about the architecture of individual houses, about how a particular feature-in this case, a canyon-can inform the setting for individual houses and even an entire neighborhood.
