SALT LAKE CITY — Samuel Newhouse was a man with grand ideas. As the son of Jewish immigrants who made enough money as a New York businessman to go out west, invest in mining and make lots more money, he saw great potential for commerce in Salt Lake City. Specifically, for the south end of downtown Salt Lake City, which he wanted to develop to compete with Mormon business interest at the north end of Main Street.
Newhouse's vision came to fruition in Exchange Place, which he hoped could be the "Wall Street of the West."
Sadly, Newhouse's money ran out before his ideas, so the district never became quite what he envisioned. Still, Exchange Place has been a cornerstone of business for more than 100 years.
This area is the focus of free tours being offered by the Utah Heritage Foundation and sponsored by the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance this summer. Tours will take place Saturday and again on Aug. 13. They will feature four buildings: the Boston Building, the Newhouse Building, the Commercial Club Building and the Salt Lake Mining and Stock Exchange Building. Tours begin every five minutes at each building between 10 a.m. and noon (the last tours start at 11:30 a.m.). The buildings can be visited in any order.
Alison Flanders of the Utah Heritage Foundation says the idea of tours "is to highlight buildings that are generally not accessible to the public or that the public might not have reasons to go inside, but that are historic treasures in the city."
It's easy to take historical architecture for granted, she says, "without realizing how it has influenced the city and the community then and now."
The Boston Building, completed in 1908, and the Newhouse Building, finished in 1910, are twin towers considered to be Salt Lake's first "skyscrapers." Eleven stories high, they once dwarfed everything else in the city. The Boston Building was named after one of Newhouses's mines; the other building he named after himself.
The two buildings were actually built to resemble classical columns, says Flanders, with three separate parts: base, middle and capital. The lion motifs on the Boston Building were a symbol of industry; the buffalo, a sign of the West. The sculpture of a woman on the Newhouse building was said to be the gentile version of the angel atop the Salt Lake Temple.
The buildings were designed by Henry Ives Cobb, a noted Chicago and New York architect.
Although the exteriors of the two buildings are similar, the interiors are very different. The Newhouse Building is done in marble; the Boston interior is equally grand, but done in tile and wood.
You look at the back of the stairs and see decorative elements, notes Kathy Nielsen of the Utah Heritage Foundation. "They paid such attention to details. And these are unique, something you don't see every day."
The tour will go to the 11th floor of the Boston Building, where participants can look across at the Newhouse Building and get a whole new perspective on it, she says. The mail system will also be featured. There was a mail drop that went down from all floors to the lobby, something quite innovative in its day.
One interesting thing about the Newhouse Building, says Flanders, is that because the buildings was built for men, there were no women's restrooms until after the 1950s. "They had to be added later, so now the men's and ladies' rooms are on alternate floors. Ladies' rooms are on the even floors, and men's on the odd floors."
The Commercial Club Building to the east of the Newhouse Building was built, as the name implies, headquarters of the Commercial Club, organized in 1902 to further Utah's ability to raise money and attract out-of-state business through mineral export, and agricultural and industrial resources. One of the first projects was a better water supply and distribution system.
They also started a tourist initiative to "See America First." In those days, the wealthy often headed for Europe first thing. In fact, says Flanders, Newhouse sent his wife to Europe to learn how to live in high society, and she ended up liking it so much, she kept a residence there until her husband's death in 1930. That may or may not have influenced the Commercial Club's agenda.
The building was designed by Walter Ware and Alberto Treganza and is said to be modeled after the New York City Athletic Club. At one time, it contained a swimming pool, banquet room, private dining rooms and a game room.
The Exchange Building, which gave its name to the area, is a striking contrast — staid and formal and gray. It was built in the Neoclassical style to house the Salt Lake Mining and Stock Exchange. Organized in 1888, the exchange centered around raising capital to develop Utah's lucrative mines. Its success lasted until the 1950s, during the uranium boom. That was speculative trade, and one historian noted that Salt Lake City was "the gambling capital of the world" in the '50s as a result.
They are all wonderful old buildings, says Nielsen; remnants of an elegant age in the city's history. "I have fond memories from my childhood of coming to Salt Lake. I always wanted to drive past these fabulous buildings because they gave the city such a metropolitan feel. They are timeless and still have so much to give."
Old buildings actually have a longer life expectancy than many built today, she says. The old builders knew how to build things to last, and they wanted something to reflect not only their times, but their optimism for the future.
"These buildings still house architects, lawyers, business professionals, just as Newhouse envisioned," says Flanders. "It's just what it was intended to be — a historic, thriving little street."
Email: carma@desnews.com