The Salt Lake Theatre - Salt Lake City, UT - Utah Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This bronze historical marker is attached to the outside wall of the Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Building. It describes the Salt Lake Theatre, which predates the existing building at this site. The marker reads:

[Depiction of five muses dancing with musical instruments]

LONG, LONG BE MY HEART WITH SUCH MEMORIES FILLED:
LIKE THE VASE IN WHICH ROSES HAVE ONCE BEEN DISTILL'D.
YOU MAY BREAK, YOU MAY SHATTER THE VASE YOU WILL,
BUT THE SCENT OF THE ROSES WILL HANG 'ROUND IT STILL.
THOMAS MOORE

[Depiction of the Salt Lake Theatre, with men and women arriving, some by horse-drawn carriage]

"THE PEOPLE MUST HAVE AMUSEMENT AS WELL AS RELIGION."
BRIGHAM YOUNG

THE SALT LAKE THEATRE
1860 - 1929
ERECTED ON THIS SITE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG
DEDICATED MARCH 6, 1862

[Depiction of a pair of theatrical comedy tragedy masks in front of a wreath and quill pens]

TABLET PLACED BY
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS &
THE MOUNTAIN STATES TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH CO.
MAHONRI, 1940

Marker Name: The Salt Lake Theatre Marker Type: City Addtional Information: "Public buildings often speak beyond themselves, suggesting the aspirations and activities of the people who occupied them, and few nineteenth-century Utah structures tell as important a story as the Salt Lake Theatre. Built in 1861 on the northwest corner of State Street and First South Street in Salt Lake City, it survived two-thirds of a century before it was razed in 1928. During this time, its activities charted early Utah cultural ideals as effectively as could a scholarly dissertation. There were manifold subplots as well. The Old Playhouse told of tension between Mormon and non-Mormon and of the assimilation of eastern tastes and culture within the territory. Serving other functions, it also revealed the style of pioneer socials, and later of turn-of-the-century politics. Finally, efforts to save the Theatre disclosed the strain between historical preservation and modernity. In short, the Salt Lake Theatre embodied Utah's early cultural, social, and political history. From the beginning, the Salt Lake Theatre was a community expression, something like a medieval cathedral. Brigham Young himself announced the project and vigorously pursued its completion. At the time, Salt Lake City was a frontier outpost of 12,000 people. The telegraph had recently established rapid communication with the wider world, but no transcontinental railroad yet existed to freight supplies and facilitate construction of the building. Yet, before building an enlarged meeting hall for worship or completing the much delayed, religiously important Salt Lake Temple, the settlers erected the theatre, easily the largest and most imposing building in the community. Part of the explanation lay with Young himself, who reportedly once declared if placed upon a cannibal island and charged with bringing civilization, he would construct a theatre. But part goes to the Mormons themselves. From Nauvoo days they had enjoyed drama, and on reaching Utah they staged productions at H.E. Bowring's makeshift playhouse and at the Social Hall. Neither was adequate. "To name all who took part in the building of the theatre would be an impossible task," one historian, George D. Pyper, suggested, "for nearly every family residing in Great Salt Lake City at the time was represented." Principals included Hiram B. Clawson, general supervisor; William H. Folsom, main architect; E.L.T. Harrison, interior designer; Alexander Gillespie, Henry Grow, Joseph Schofield, and Joseph A. Young, foremen; and George M. Ottinger, Henry Maiben, and William Morris, scenery painters. By modern standards the Salt Lake Theatre was not large. Its outer dimensions were 80 by 144 feet; its capacity was estimated at 1,500. In later years it was ill served by accumulated clutter: a distracting marquee, obstructing telephone lines, and an iron-grate stairway attached to its eastern wall. At first, however, its exterior lines were chaste. Two simple Doric columns commanded the entrance, which had an inviting space of thirty-two by twenty feet. The remainder of the facade was distinguished by simple lines and by the chalky white plaster that seemed magical at nightfall. In contrast, the interior, particularly after an 1873 renovation, strove for elegance. It was fashioned in the style of a European opera house with a commodious parquet and four ascending circles. Two boxes overlooked the sloping and unusually spacious stage. Farther to the rear, the theatre had ample dressing, rehearsal, and storage rooms that few American or European playhouses at the time could equal. From the first, the Salt Lake Theatre aimed to provide "proper" drama in an uplifting atmosphere. When U.S. Army cavalrymen threatened decorum, their attendance was temporarily forbidden; if on-stage realism became too stark, it was suspended. Even too vociferous an audience might draw from Brigham Young a watchful look. Plays ranged from Shakespeare to more common didactic melodrama. At the beginning, "home" or stock County: Salt Lake City: Salt Lake City Group Responsible for Placement: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co. Date Dedicated: 1940 Web link(s) for additional information: http://history.utah.gov/apps/markers/detailed_results.php?markerid=2633 Marker Number: Not listed

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