FRUIT HEIGHTS — One afternoon after dropping her daughter off at Cherry Hill Water Park, Sue Harkness decided to venture through the back streets of this small Davis County city.
That course took her in front of the two-story rock-exterior building known to many as the Rock Loft.
"I just happened upon it by accident," Harkness said.
An old man was walking on the loft's dock and Harkness asked him if the building was for sale. That man was Dale Jost, who dedicated much of his life to the structure at 251 S. Mountain Road.
Jost sold the building to Harkness and her husband, Steve, who opened a home decor/gift shop, Secret Haven, on April 15, 1994. Today three other tenants — The Bun Basket, The Hidden Closet and The Canyon Gallery Fine Art and Custom Framing — join Secret Haven as occupants of the historic rock building.
But embedded in the large rock exterior between the Secret Haven and the Bun Basket sits a remnant from the building's beginnings — a rectangular plaque that reads "Erected 1944 by Lee Jost Dedicated to Betterment of Horticulture in Utah. . . . 'By their fruits ye shall know them.' "
Lee Jost built the center section of the building with flood rocks that came out of Bair Canyon. A year or two later, Lee's son, Dale, came home from serving in the U.S. Air Force in World War II and started building the upstairs and two wings of the building.
Cherry-picking days
The Josts owned the largest sweet cherry orchard in Utah at the time. They used the Rock Loft to sort and fresh pack their cherries.
"They were sorted on graders . . . They'd dump a box of cherries on and then sort them," said Margaret Jost-Parker, widow of the late Dale Jost. "The good ones would come down into the box that was being shipped and the bad ones you'd put out on the ends."
The Josts did fresh pack for years in the loft, and Jost-Parker said they had huge crops and a lot of people were involved in the summer process.
"We used people from the Mountain Road, people from downtown. All of our friends and neighbors sorted cherries and we had fun times," she said. "It was hard work."
Ray Phillips worked with the Josts for six or seven years.
"I oversaw the picking of the cherries," he said, adding that they had as many as 200 pickers at one time.
He enjoyed seeing how many cherries came off each day.
"Some of the families could pick a ton of cherries a day," he said.
Later the Josts put in a cherry machine that occupied the entire center section of the loft. It would separate the cherries into small and big sizes. Eventually people from Brigham City to Provo were bringing their cherries to be processed at the Rock Loft. At one point the building had long drains and loading docks for shipment and vats, or tubs, for processing the cherries.
The fresh-pack cherries were shipped in refrigerated trucks across the country. The Josts also processed maraschino cherries at the plant for some time.
Supper Club and parties
But the building's name, the Rock Loft, came from a supper club that occupied the loft in the 1940s. The restaurant featured dining and dancing and had a full orchestra and an organ during intermission.
"It was quite a place," Jost-Parker said. "I spent many a New Year's Eve up there."
Phillips said as a dance hall the building was very entertaining.
"They had a nice orchestra and served good food," he said.
Jost-Parker said the restaurant closed in the early 1950s after construction straightened out U.S. 89 and the road no longer ran in front of the rock building.
But during the winter and fall, the loft was still filled with celebrations and events.
"We had parties galore," Jost-Parker said. "Whenever anybody needed a party space they came up to the Rock Loft."
Jost-Parker said they also held spook alleys in fall in the 10,000 square foot building. She said Dale enjoyed dressing up as a gorilla for some of the events.
"You'd get him in that gorilla outfit where nobody could recognize him and he became a different person and he had more fun with that," she said. "We used that for years."
But eventually the Josts' cherry trees began to die and many were replaced with houses. The Josts continued to use the outside of the Rock Loft to process cherries up until 1992. But the family stopped using the interior of the building to process cherries a while before that and it became necessary to rent it out to different entities.
Fruit Heights city offices made their home in the south end of the loft for 15 years, starting in May 1978.
Also, for a while the building housed a candled egg operation and was used for storage and distribution of apples, potatoes, etc.
In 1990, Homespun, a boutique and antique business opened its doors to the public in the building. In 1991 The Canyon Gallery Fine Art and Custom Framing chose to expand its business and moved into the top floor of the loft. Those two businesses paved the way for what the building houses today — Harkness' home decor and gift shop, which moved in in 1994.
The Rock Loft today
Today outside of the original Rock Loft building sits barely changed. Harkness and her husband added a wooden eave to the front of the Secret Haven entrance and built storage units and a shop around the cherry processing vats. Inside, Harkness replaced the building's windows and put in a hardwood floor in the main level and a fireplace in the north wing. They also did some wall treatments and work on the ceiling.
But other than those changes the original architecture is the same.
And although many of Fruit Height's original cherry orchards and most of the early inhabitants of the Rock Loft have vanished, a lot of memories remain.
"I remember a lot of the fun times that we had there both as family and friends, as well as the cherries," Jost-Parker said.
Many of Harkness' customers worked at the loft as young children and have sentimental memories of their time there.
"Every week I hear, 'I used to pick cherries here when I was young' or 'I used to work at the haunted house,' " Harkness said. "I've learned bits and pieces about the (loft's) history from the people."
Harkness said the Josts opened their business to the community.
"The Josts invented the word 'kind' and they actually paved the way for me to do well because of their kindness," she said.
Harkness said she tries to continue the Josts' legacy by maintaining a warm, welcoming business.
"The most rewarding thing for me is when people come here as a refuge," she said.
She said the building's architecture, as well as its history and people, make it unique.
"When I saw the building I thought, 'There's something special here,' " she said.
E-mail: nclemens@desnews.com