We are not here isolated and alone, differently formed and composed of different material from the rest of the human race. We belong to and are part of this family, consequently we are under obligation one to another.
— Brigham Young, 1870
Welfare Square was born humbly amid humble times.
It was the late 1930s and the country was reeling from the Great Depression's two-fisted blows. Thousands of Americans were out of work and dry on hope — including nearly 35 percent of all Utahns of whom most were Church members. Willing laborers had nowhere to ply their trades and earn their bread, stripping them of security and the satisfaction of self-reliance.
These troubled times and desperation pained Church leaders. They responded with a hopeful, uplifting program of self-sufficiency dubbed the Church Security Plan — an inspired system designed to offer jobs, food and necessities to the jobless and needy.
"No pains must be spared to wipe out feelings of diffidence, embarrassment or shame on the part of those receiving relief. . . . A system which gives relief for work or services will go far to reaching these ends," said the First Presidency in 1936 when the plan was announced.
Factory and farm enterprises were established, giving unemployed folks a chance to work for food and provisions. Their yields were then processed, stored and distributed — again offering work opportunities to those in need. Food and supplies were originally stocked inside regional storehouses, but a larger, more central facility was soon needed.
Then in 1937 the Church bought a 10-acre block on Salt Lake City's west side for $100.
"It was determined that on this property would be built the operations headquarters for the general Church welfare program and a storehouse for the Salt Lake Valley. The facilities would be called Welfare Square," wrote Elder Glen L. Rudd in his book Pure Religion.
Enlisting a frugality that epitomizes the mission of Welfare Square, Church leaders decided not to use new supplies to build the facility. Instead, the Church offered to demolish eight condemned buildings from which it would salvage usable materials.
"The only expenses to the Church were the wages of one paid supervisor and the cost of hauling the materials to the new location," said Elder Rudd, a former member of the Seventy. "Hundreds of Latter-day Saint men and boys, most of them financially distressed, worked over 14,000 hours to accomplish this huge demolition assignment."
Church workers and volunteers recovered 1.5 million bricks, 250,000 feet of lumber, 40,000 square feet of flooring material, 1,500 pounds of electrical wire and fixtures, 4,750 feet of usable glass, 150 doors and two elevators.
Workers soon turned the chunks of the salvaged material into Welfare Square's first structure — a root cellar large enough to hold 50 railroad carloads of goods.
"Almost before the cellar was completed, potatoes by the truckload were arriving for storage," Elder Rudd wrote.
A three-story cannery was built a short time later with sufficient capacity to process produce for the welfare needs of the entire Church. A multi-use bishops storehouse soon followed, providing recipients with additional work opportunities and the fruits of their efforts such as meat, eggs, butter and vegetables. A milk processing plant was also built and began operating in 1941.
The towering, 178-foot grain elevator on Welfare Square is one of the Church's most enduring landmarks — a symbol of strength and resilience embodying the mission of the Church's welfare program. The elevator remains the crowning achievement of the original Welfare Square layout.
"The excavation work [on the grain elevator] was begun on 6 March 1940 and completed two days later," Elder Rudd wrote. "The land at Welfare Square is at low elevation and has a high water table. It was therefore necessary to prepare a stable support to carry the weight of the large concrete elevator. Workers drove 627 40-foot logs, nearly five miles in total length, as pilings into the ground. On these pilings they poured a reinforced concrete slab, 27 inches thick by 48 feet wide and 92 feet long."
Workers then poured the walls of the elevator in one continuous stream of concrete, a process requiring a day and night effort that lasted more than eight days and consumed 15,000 bags of cement, according to Church public affairs.
President J. Reuben Clark Jr. of the First Presidency spoke at the grain elevator's dedication:
"This building represents above all else, the spirit of cooperation. . . . I wish that all of us could really appreciate what united effort could mean if we should cooperate in all things as we have in this enterprise." (Improvement Era, March, 1941.)
The widely recognized grain elevator is the only remaining structure from the original Welfare Square campus. It stands as a reminder of past sacrifices and a vanguard to a hopeful future. Over time, the other original Welfare Square facilities became outdated and needed to be replaced. The milk plant was eventually rebuilt, a new cannery was designed and a cold storage facility was constructed in 1967 to replace the old root cellar. The original Welfare Square built on a 10-acre lot now stretches across 13 acres, according to Elder Rudd.
Construction workers razed the beloved cannery in 2000, replaced by a new 22,000-square-foot cannery. The Employment Services Center was also remodeled and a new milk processing plant and bakery were finished. Still, the original mission and charge that prompted the establishment of Welfare Square stands strong.
Welfare Square, says the managing director of Church Welfare Services, Harold C. Brown, "has been the historical icon that has represented the welfare program of the Church since the 1930s."
E-mail: jswensen@desnews.com