EXHIBITS
(In) The Road of Progress: The West Side and I-15: Salt Lake City Before the Interstate
Salt Lake City Before the Interstate
History of Settlement
In 1847, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, having fled religious persecution. They found a new home in the valley and constructed the city of Salt Lake on a grid centered around their temple.
Mormon settlers expanded to the north and south of the city as they built along the Wasatch Front, following well-established trails used by Native Americans and others. These trails would connect Salt Lake to its neighboring communities and set routes for modern infrastructure, beginning with the railroad.
The Railroad
The arrival of the American Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, in May 1869 led to the creation of branch lines that would eventually reach Salt Lake in early 1870.[1] The Salt Lake branch railroad was the first of many railroads that stretched from Utah’s capital city to destinations near and far.
Surveyors who worked to map routes for these railroads were limited to a narrow corridor of land that ran between the shores of the Great Salt Lake to the west and the Wasatch Mountains to the east. Geography often determined the likely route railroads and later roadways took running along the valley west of town.
The railroad divided Salt Lake City with a permeable band of iron, each side with its own path of development. The city’s grid had originally been designed for each block to support multi-use agricultural and living spaces. While both sides of the city grew steadily from their original settlement, the nature of growth differed on the eastern and western sides of the city, as the west side’s residential and agricultural blocks were soon shared land with railroad yards.[2]
The construction of a rail yard west of Salt Lake City helped establish the surrounding area as one defined by industry yet interspersed with small homes and businesses. Although the rail yard’s industrial nature brought with it noise, soot, and grime, people of all backgrounds called the west side home.[3]
People of the West Side
The railroad was paramount in opening access to the once isolated Salt Lake Valley for immigrants. Economic opportunity attracted a large immigrant population to the city.. At the dawn of the twentieth century, the west side became the “base camp” for more than a dozen immigrant communities who shaped the area as a storehouse of goods from around the world.[4]
"In the middle of all of this was the Pioneer Park neighborhood, which was the first and the largest of the many interconnected, industry related, ethnic enclaves that spread across Utah and the Intermountain West."
- Brad Westwood, Historian, Salt Lake West Side Stories[5]
At the dawn of the twentieth century, the west side had become home to people from Great Britain, Scandinavia, China, Japan, Central and South America, and the Ottoman Empire. The newcomers existed alongside pre-existing Latter-day Saint congregations.[6] The west side became known for this mélange of cultures, unified only by geographical happenstance and economic class.[7]
Endnotes:
[1] Richard Cowan, “Steel Rails and the Utah Saints,” Journal of Mormon History 27, no. 2 (2001): 190.
[2] Brad Westwood, “The Pioneer Park Neighborhood’s Warehouse District and a Visit from the Liberty Bell,” Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, accessed June 1, 2023, https://community.utah.gov/the-pioneer-park-neighborhoods-warehouse-district-and-a-visit-from-the-liberty-bell/.
[3] Brad Westwood, “Utah’s Expanding Railroads and Salt Lake’s West Side,” Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, accessed June 1, 2023, https://community.utah.gov/utahs-expanding-railroads-and-salt-lakes-west-side/
[4] Brad Westwood, “Salt Lake as an Early Industrial City and the Beginning of the Relief Society Halls,” Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, accessed June 1, 2023, https://community.utah.gov/salt-lake-as-an-early-industrial-city-and-the-beginning-of-the-relief-society-halls/; Westwood, “The Pioneer Park Neighborhood’s Warehouse District.”
[5] Westwood, “Utah’s Expanding Railroads.”
[6] Westwood, “The Pioneer Park Neighborhood’s Warehouse District.”
[7] Brad Westwood, “Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Developments,” Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, accessed June 1, 2023, https://community.utah.gov/late-nineteenth-and-early-twentieth-century-developments/