18 Thursday Oct 2018
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Dennis A. Smyth House
Designed by S.T. Whitaker, and constructed about 1889, this Victorian brick house combines several high-style elements in a design that makes it unique in Ogden and in the state. A colorful character and successful businessman, Dennis A. Smyth, born in 1858 in Ireland, owned the house for many years. His family hosted several important dignitaries including President William Howard Taft.
18 Thursday Oct 2018
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The Heywood House
Constructed 1902 for Mr. & Mrs. Abbot Rodney Heywood.
Built with a stone foundation, brick walls at ground floor, and cedar shingled second floor.
Mr. Heywood was a local attorney, banker, and mayor of Ogden (1916-1917).
25 Sunday Dec 2016
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The Ogden Utah Temple (formerly the Ogden Temple) is the sixteenth constructed and fourteenth operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Located in Ogden, Utah, it was originally built with a modern, single-spire design very similar to the Provo Utah Temple. During a renovation completed in 2014, the exterior and interior were extensively changed.
27 Saturday Aug 2016
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Once called “Stringtown” due to the early homes being strung along a single road and the Weber River, Riverdale was also known as “Jack Thompson’s Settlement” and “Union” before the name of Riverdale was given to the town.
The first settlers in the community were James Graham, his sons George and Robert, and other members of the Graham family. They farmed in the area as early as 1850. Elisha Lane located nearby, as did William Farley, and Rufus Allen. Other early settlers of Riverdale included Adam Fife, Alexander Patterson, Warren C. Child, Thomas Slater, Richard Woolsey, John Child, John C. Thompson, William Stimpson, Myron Barber Child, and George Ritter.
Daniel Burch built a grist mill along the eastern bank of the Weber River in 1853. John Taylor, an LDS apostle, purchased and expanded the mill in 1858. Other industries began establishing, including match manufacturing (by Hugh Findlay, who later served as the settlement’s first teacher), a blacksmith shop, and a canning factory.
The town of Riverdale was finally incorporated on March 4, 1946.
14 Sunday Aug 2016
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A few pictures from the James V. Hansen Federal Building in Ogden.
14 Sunday Aug 2016
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13 Saturday Aug 2016
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Peery’s Egyptian Theater was built after the fiery demise of the Arlington Hotel in 1923. Harman and Louis Peery devised a plan to build a grand theater, “The Showplace of the West”. The architectural firm of Hodgson & McClenahan, notable for many important Wasatch Front landmarks, was hired for the task. They took cues from many of the most famous western theaters, including Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, and settled upon an Egyptian-themed showhouse.
Construction began in 1923 on the cleared area left from the Arlington Hotel, and incidentally, the location of the Peerys’ first Ogden home. Ten months passed, and on July 3, 1924, the Egyptian opened. The first feature played at the new theater was Zane Grey’s Wanderer of the Wasteland. This “natural color” silent film was accompanied by the Mighty Wurlitzer, the Egyptian’s famous pipe organ.
The first “talking picture” was In Old Arizona, shown in 1929. This downgraded the role of the house pipe organ, which was occasionally used during intermissions and other programs. In 1960, the organ was removed and put into storage.
12 Friday Aug 2016
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For over 100 years, the Kay Block (a.k.a. Kay Building) served as the home of many retail and professional businesses at this site, Ogden’s most prominent intersection. The building was constructed circa 1883 for Ogden businessman David Kay, and occupied this site until the construction of the Ogden City Centre Building began in 1989.
Kay received title to the property in 1883 from David H. Peery for a reported $3,125. The earliest business located in the building was Kay’s produce and commission store known as “David Kay Wholesale Groceries”. Kay shipped produce to Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and California. Later occupants of the building included severa real estate offices, fire insurance agencies, and starting in 1905, several drug stores which operated here through the 1940s.
The building type was a “one-part commercial block” which included Italianate architectural elements such as a bracketed cornice and round arch windows with decorative, eyebrow window heads. The Italianate style was popular into the 1880s in Utah’s architectural tradition.
There is a statue out front of Peter Skene Ogden as well.
12 Friday Aug 2016
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Peter Skene Ogden
Fur trader, trapper, explorer, diplomat and patriarch.
Born: 1794 in Quebec, Canada
Died: 1854 in Oregon City, Oregon
The City of Ogden and Ogden River in Utah are named in his honor.
I have run into a few historic markers that mentioned Peter, like this one in Idaho and this one in Northern Utah.
12 Friday Aug 2016
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Haunted, Haunted Utah, historic, Historic Buildings, Hotels, Ogden, utah, Weber County
The Historic Ben Lomond Hotel in downtown Ogden, Utah.
Located on Historic 25th Street of downtown Ogden, Utah Ben Lomond Suites Historic Hotel started life as the five-story Reed Hotel in 1891. In 1927 the hotel was completely reworked in an attempt to create a fire proof hotel. Eleven stories were added and the hotel was renamed the Bigelow Hotel. In 1933 Marriner S. Eccles aquired the hotel and renamed it the Ben Lomond Hotel. Then in the 1980s the 350 room hotel was completely renovated and converted to a 120 suite condo-hotel. The Ben Lomond is the last of the three “grand hotels” in Utah that is still being operated as a hotel. Evidence of this legacy can be seen in the crystal chandeliers, marble floors and decorative ceilings as you enter the lobby of this historic hotel, which is listed on both the Utah & National Historic Registers.
There are many stories about it being haunted, a quick search online will pull up sites like this.
