Amy Barry, Stories from Utah’s Cemeteries Database (Part 1 & 2, Reissued)

Date: December 23, 2019 (Season 1, Episode 7 – Part 1: 25 min. & 3 sec. long and Part 2: 26 min. & 1 sec. long). Click here for Part 1 and Click here for Part 2 of the BuzzSprout versions of this Speak Your Piece two-part episode. The above cropped photograph is of Fort Douglas Cemetery (June 1963), one …

The Legacy of Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Fort

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Sevenby Brad Westwood Above photo caption: Utah’s Hall of Relics, built as a small Parthenon replica. Note above the pediment is a smaller replica of Ralph Ramsey’s flying eagle sculpture (the original atop Brigham Young’s Eagle Gate). The hall, constructed of plaster and jute fiber over a wooden frame, was built for the 1897 …

SLC’s Latinx Population, Environmental Racism: A West Side Story, Past & Present

Date: September 20, 2021 (Season 3, Episode 11; 49:26 minutes long). Click here for the BuzzSprout version of this Speak Your Piece episode. The above image is a screenshot of USU’s spatially layered interactive map of Salt Lake City which demonstrates the overlap between pollution hotspots, Latinx Populations and mid-century mortgage redlining boundaries. Are you interested in other episodes of …

Japanese Americans on the West Side

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Twenty-SevenBy Brad Westwood and Cassandra Clark During the late nineteenth century, Japanese American immigrants arrived in Utah seeking employment opportunities. Initially, many worked for railroad companies that previously employed Chinese immigrants. Many Japanese Americans made their mark by opening businesses, worshiping in their temples and churches, and participating in Utah’s civic life. Japanese migrants, …

Redlining, Housing Segregation and Environmental Pollution in the Pioneer Park Neighborhood (and beyond)

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Thirty-fiveBy Dr. Mariya Shcheglovitova, Emma Jones, Catherine Aviles, and Brad Westwood Unlike other areas that received a grade (A to D) from the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (a federal corporation created during the Great Depression), the Pioneer Park neighborhood was designated “Industrial,” implying it was nonresidential. However, woven between the railroad yards and spurs, …

Salt Lake City’s LGBTQ+ Communities and the Pioneer Park Neighborhood

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Thirty-Twoby Brad Westwood Although the LGBTQ+ community had many prior informal political and social gathering spots elsewhere in Salt Lake City, a number of bars and taverns located in the Pioneer Park neighborhood served as a place to gather for Salt Lake City’s emerging LGBTQ+ communities. In 1970, just one year after New York …

Utah’s Expanding Railroads and Salt Lake’s West Side

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Nineby Brad Westwood The completion of the world’s first transcontinental railroad in 1869 dramatically affected the social, political, economic, and cultural life of Salt Lake City (SLC), the Territory of Utah, and the American West. Transportation was one aspect that contributed to changes in the West. The railroad cut travel time from the Pacific …

The Old Pioneer Fort’s First and Second Years

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Sixby Brad Westwood Above photo caption: Kirk Henrichsen’s bird’s eye sketch of the Fort on the Great Salt Lake, circa 1849, extending from 300 to 400 West and 250 to 600 South. Henrichsen’s drawings included log and adobe cabins, gateways, hundreds of wagons used for cooking and sleeping (inside, under, and around), the flagpole, …

Salt Lake City Loses Its “Dirtiest City” Status, the West Side, Public Health, and the City’s Only Surviving Pioneer Square

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Fourteenby Brad Westwood It is no surprise that in terms of public health, sanitary reform, and civic improvements, local and state leaders neglected Salt Lake City’s ethnically diverse and industrial west side. The west side sits along the floodplain of the Jordan River and the southern end of City Creek’s alluvial deposit. At the …

The Pioneer Park Neighborhood’s Warehouse District and a Visit From the Liberty Bell

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Elevenby Brad Westwood The Pioneer Park neighborhood underwent several changes related to post-Civil War industrialization. In the late nineteenth century, the Pioneer Park neighborhood became Salt Lake City’s first warehouse district. Today there are several warehouses that date back to the 1890s. For example, the W.S. Henderson Block spans from 379 West and 200 …

Salt Lake as an Early Industrial City and the Beginning of the Relief Society Halls

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Tenby Brad Westwood Not long after the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter LDS Church, also known as Mormons) entered the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles instructed Henry G. Sherwood and Orson Pratt, to design an ideal agrarian-based city. Young’s …