Although the mining community of Park City began in the 1870s, it was not until 1895 that plans for the construction of this LDS Church were formulated. In 1897 construction on a meeting house was started and apparently completed that year. However, the church was burned in the great fire of June 19, 1898, which destroyed many of Park City’s buildings. Rebuilt in 1899, this building was formally opened for services on March 18, 1900. An addition was made to the rear between 1926-1930 and in 1938 work commenced on the amusement hall. The building served as a meeting house until 1962.
This gothic style brick church was constructed in 1899 by P. Anderson & Company for the First Congregational Church of Park City. Established in Park City in 1879. The Congregationalists joined with the Park City Methodist Church in 1919 under the direction of the Home Missions Council to form the Park City Community Church.
Park City Community Church
The original church on this site was built in the 1880’s by the Congregationalists, a sect which arrived in Park City while it was still a mining camp. Congregationalists were the first to establish regular Protestant services in Utah. By 1883 they were actively proselytizing among local miners and had acquired this property to build a church.
Fire raged through Park City in June of 1898, destroying the original structure. The Pastor immediately declared intention to rebuild, making use of walls left standing after the fire. Plans for the present edifice were complete by October of 1898. The design reflects a basic Gothic style much used in religious institution of that time. Construction was delayed, however, and not completed until 1899.
The church became the Park City Community Church in 1919 when several local Protestant denominations joined congregations in an ecumenical effort. Continuous operation of this church since it was built has provided Park City with important religious, social and educational facilities.
Built in 1935-36 at 1167 Woodside Ave, the Park City High School Mechanical Arts Building is part of the Public Works Buildings Thematic Resource nomination and is significant because it helps document the impact of New Deal programs in Utah, which was one of the states that the Great Depression of the 1930s most severely affected. In 1933 Utah had an unemployment rate of 36 percent, the fourth highest in the county, and for the period 1932-40 Utah’s unemployment rate averaged 25 percent. Because the depression hit Utah so hard, federal programs were extensive in the state. Overall, per capita federal spending in Utah during the 1930s was 9th among the 48 states, and the percentage of workers on federal work projects was far above the national average. Building programs were of great importance. During the 1930s virtually every public building constructed in Utah, including county courthouses, city halls, fire stations, national guard armories, public school buildings, and a variety of others, were built under federal programs by one of the several agencies, including the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the National Youth Administration (NYA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), or the Public Works Administration (PWA), and almost without exception none of the buildings would have been built when they were without the assistance of the federal government. Built by the Works Progress Administration and designed by Scott and Welch, the Park City High School Mechanical Arts Building is also architecturally significant as one of five buildings remaining in Park City constructed in the PWA Moderne style.
Between 1933-39 federal agencies spent nearly $300 million in federal assistance in Utah. The longest-lasting and most extensive New Deal relief program in Utah and the rest of the nation, the WPA was established in 1935 and continued until 1943. The peak of WPA employment in Utah was in the fall of 1936 when more than 17,000 Utahns were at work on WPA projects. The New Deal era programs offered not only work relief, but also provided long-term benefits to the communities and the state in the form of improved public facilities. The Mechanical Arts building in Park City is one of the 233 public works buildings identified in Utah that were built during the 1930s and early 1940s. Only 130 of those 233 buildings are known to remain today and retain their historic integrity. Of the 233, 107 were public school buildings. The Park City High School Mechanical Arts Building is one of 7 public works buildings constructed in Summit County, 6 of which remain.
Art Deco and Art Moderne buildings are the most conspicuous elements of public works architecture but are overshadowed by a large group of buildings constructed in what David Gebhard has called the PWA Moderne style. During the depression years, Gebhard writes, “architects Streamlined Moderne… These buildings were fundamentally classical and formal, but just enough Moderne details were injected to convey a contemporary Moderne feeling as well as the traditional authority of the classical.” The PWA Moderne style combines the formal symmetrical elements of the Classical roots with Art Deco and Art Moderne details such as masonry wall surfaces, metal sash, vertical molded ornamentation, and decorative parapet. Many of these buildings-schools, mechanical arts buildings, city halls-appear at first glance plain and box-like. Upon closer inspection, however, in their rigid symmetry and abstract classicism, they remain fully consistent with the stylistic impulses of the times. The Park City High School Mechanical Arts Building is one of five remaining PWA Moderne style buildings remaining in Park City.
Most public works buildings were designed by architects. The most prolific firm was Scott and Welch of Salt Lake City. Carl W. Scott and George W. Welch were both prominent Utah architects. Scott was born October 17, 1887, in Minneapolis, Kansas, and graduated in 1907 from the University of Utah with a degree in mining. He was given credit for the idea of the concrete “U” that is still above the University of Utah campus. Following graduation he began a career in architecture as a draftsman for Richard Kletting. In 1914 he became partners with George W. Welch.
Welch was born in Denver, Colorado, on May 15, 1886, graduated from Colorado College, and came to Salt Lake City to begin work as an architect. Active in political affairs while here, he was a member of the Utah House of Representatives from 1919 until 1921.
Scott and Welch designed the Salt Lake City’s Elks’ Club Building, South High School, the Masonic Temple, and many public school buildings throughout Utah including Hawthorne Elementary School and Bryant Junior high School in Salt Lake, Park City High School, Tooele High School, Blanding High School and Cedar City Elementary School. They also designed a number of commercial buildings including the Nelson Manufacturing Company Warehouse, the Nelson-Ricks Creamery Building, and the Firestone Tire Company building, all in Salt Lake City. Scott and Welch also designed and built the planned community of Copperton. Copperton was a company town built by the copper mining company, Utah Copper Company, in the 1920-30s. Included in the plan was a Bingham High School, built in 1931. Scott and Welch designed more school buildings during the 1930s than any other Utah firm.
The Park City High School Mechanical Arts building is historically related to the adjacent Park City Education Center, formerly the Park City High School (1926), and to the Marsac Elementary School (1935-36). The Mechanical Arts building was built as an addition to the high school “campus” and incorporates similar materials and detailing to “harmonize” with the adjacent High School structure. The High School was constructed in 1926-27 and renovated in 1993-94 by the City to house the library, a theater, and educational facilities.
The Park City High School Mechanical Arts Building was originally constructed in 1935-36 as a part of the same bond issue used to build the Marsac Building. Approval for funding the building was given at a bond election in Park City on October 19, 1935. Approval was overwhelming: 169 in favor and 12 opposed. The two buildings used the same architects, materials, similar styles and were constructed and dedicated at the same time. The Marsac Elementary School was fully renovated c.1985 and is in use today as Park City’s municipal offices.
At its original dedication the Park City newspaper described the Mechanical Arts Building as follows:
The high school mechanical arts shop was built at a cost of about $15,000. Like the elementary school just described and the high school built ten years ago, it is fireproof throughout. In design and material it harmonizes with the high school building. This shop is the last word in Industrial arts housing. It contains one large room for general shop classes, a drawing room, toilet and locker rooms, paint and storage room. It is equipped with tools, benches and machinery for woodwork, cold and hot metal work, and auto-mechanics. Translucent glass is used in all windows. The drawing room is equipped with individual drawing tables and stools. Other special rooms are furnished with appropriate appliances. The shop is heated from the high school heating plant.
Construction began on the Mechanical Arts Building at 1167 Woodside in the fall of 1935, was opened for use on November 15, 1936, and was officially dedicated on December 4th, 1936.
When the high school program moved to its present location in Park Meadows, the School district began using the building as a bus barn for the City school buses. It was at this time that the structure’s mezzanine and the mechanical systems were striped out to make more room for the buses, plows and storage needs. The 1995-96 restoration of the building is currently near completion and will be used for architectural offices.
In Park City’s history there were few civic and educational structures built. Accordingly, they were and are particularly significant to the community’s history. This is especially true for this structure since it was in service as a school shop as recently as 15 years ago. Many still live in Park City who grew up, took classes, and created fond memories in this building. In a city faced with the pressures of development, the preservation of historic properties as a part of the town’s promotional vision is difficult to balance. The Park City High School Mechanical Arts building retains its historic integrity and contributes to the qualities of the town.
Built in 1883, this is the oldest Catholic church and school still in use in Utah. Remodeled in 1950 following severe damage by fire.
Marker placed January 1974 by the Park City Arts Festival Committee.
St Mary’s Catholic Church
In the late 1870’s numerous schools and churches were established through Park City – evidence that a sense of community was replacing the transient mining camp character of the town. With Irish Catholics prominent among the mining population, St. Mary’s Catholic Church was the largest local congregation.
In 1881 the original frame church and school were built. Classes were conducted by the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the basement. During July 4th celebrations in 1884 the building was destroyed by fire. Reconstruction began immediately, and by fall the two stone buildings were completed. The school operated until 1933, when enrollment had dwindled to 57 students and was expected to decline further.
St. Mary’s was gutted by fire in 1951, at a time when mines were closing and local population declining. Father William Kennedy rallied a corps of unemployed miners to reconstruct the buildings, thus assuring continuation of the Catholic organization in Park City.
St Mary’s celebrated its centennial in 1981, and is the oldest Catholic Church in the state of Utah.
In the late 1870s Park City reputation for ore deposits spread nationwide, and its accessibility was guaranteed by the arrival of the rails. Episcopalian ministers began to include the town of their missionary circuit. By the late 1880s a small but stable Episcopalian congregation was established in Park City. A church was built two blocks south of this site in 1890 but was destroyed in the disastrous fire of 1898.
At the turn of the century the Episcopalian congregation was flourishing. In 1901 a volunteer labor force was used to construct this one story, frame, rectangular chapel in a simplified Gothic style.
Reflecting the fluctuations in Park City’s population and fortunes, the church was inactive and deconsecrated from 1947 to 1960. Services resumed in 1964, but the building was dilapidated from abandonment and disuse. Interest in restoration began in 1978. Exterior elements have been carefully retained, while the interior has been modernized to serve the needs of its now thriving membership.
Built in 1935-36, the Marsac Elementary School is one of over 230 public works buildings constructed in Utah under various New Deal programs during the Depression years of the 1930s and ’40s. The construction of public works buildings, of which only 130 are extant and well preserved, not only offered temporary work relief, but also provided long-term benefits in the form of improved facilities for a variety of local public programs. The types of buildings constructed included public schools, county courthouses, city halls, libraries, National Guard armories, and a variety of others. The architects of this building were Carl W. Scott and George W. Welch, who designed numerous school buildings throughout the state, as well as a number of commercial and institutional buildings in Salt Lake City. In 1983 the building was purchased by Park City Municipal Corporation and renovated to house the city offices.
Marsac School
Park City, from its earliest days as a mining camp, was conscientious of the educational needs of its children. As early as 1875 private schools were established by the mining companies and churches. The Jefferson and Washington Schools were public institutions built to accommodate the burgeoning student population in the early 1900’s.
In 1936 Park City constructed Marsac School and consolidated its various schools at Marsac. Its 24,102 square feet was designed for 317 pupils. The facility served Park City’s educational system until 1979, when enrollment exceeded available space by about 40 students. Marsac School was deemed no longer viable for a modern educational program, and its structural and mechanical systems were judged to be inadequate or failing. Students were relocated to a new facility on the outskirts of Park City.
In 1983 Park City Municipal Corporation undertook an extensive renovation of Marsac School. It now houses city offices and continues to serve this rapidly growing community by providing adequate space for a consolidated, integrated system of city government and services.
Above Park City, Utah is The Preserve, a gated community with awesome views. I’ll add more later but needed a place to put this short clip of the view.
The Park City Hotel was built on this site after the Great Fire of 1898. It was managed by a well-liked and respected Park City resident, Mrs. Marie Hethke O’Keefe, who also owned the furnishings. After it was destroyed in another fore in 1912, a great community fund-raising effort produced $22,000 to pay for the construction of a fine brick building to be called the New Park Hotel. On November 3, 1913, Mrs. O’Keefe opened the new hotel and it quickly became a favorite stopping place for travelers. It was described as a “beautiful and commodious hostelry with a dinning room decorated in patriotic red, white, and blue.” All meals, including Sunday dinner, were 50 cents each. Guest lists, which were published in the Park Record, indicated that business was flourishing. Mrs. O’Keefe operated the New Park Hotel until 1952 when depressed economics times forced its closure. She died in 1958. After extensive remodeling and modernization in the mid-1960s, the building reopened as The Claimjumper, a hotel, restaurant, and private club. The hotel rooms were converted into offices after a fire in 1992.
This two-story frame structure was built just after the 1898 fire which burned most of the buildings on Main Street. Among the first occupants was the Salvation Army, which moved in in 1900. By 1902 it was the funeral parlor of Bill Fennemore, whose sign was a miniature casket.
When the Daly West Mine explosion of 1902 claimed the lives of 32 men, morticians from Salt Lake City were called to help with the emergency. Jacob Franklin Richardson, one of those who answered the call for aid, purchased the business from Fennemore, and later built a one-story addition to the south of this building. George Archer bought out Richardson in 1921, and from Archer it passed to Joseph Olpin.
This was the only local mortuary until the late 1960s, when the Olpins relocated to a newer building. This structure then served as an interior design showcase, a real estate office, and a sportswear store. The addition which for many years housed a children’s ski shop, was demolished in 1983.
This is a typical example of the vernacular commercial style of Park City buildings in he (sic) early 1900s. It features a bracketed wood cornice on the upper facade, and two entryways flanking two large display windows. The building has had only minor alterations since it was constructed.
On July 4, 1984, Officer Rodney W. Schreurs of the Park City Police Department was directing traffic after the annual 4th of July fireworks display when he was struck and killed by a fast moving automobile. Officer Schreurs was the only Park City officer to die in the line of duty. On behalf of the citizens of Park City, Officer Schreurs’ wife and two children, his friends and fellow officers, this park is dedicated in his memory.
