Today's checkouts the last for Salt Lake inn

Working at Passages, she has fed a variety of celebrities, including musicians Jon Bon Jovi and Gladys Knight and actors Angela Lansbury, John Ritter, Raquel Welch and Karl Malden, not to mention a host of ballet dancers, opera singers and others performing at nearby venues.

"It's a beautiful corner," she said of the inn's spot where West Temple and South Temple meet. "Lots of memories."

Calls to preserve the inn have been overshadowed by a more concerted effort to stop the planned demolition of the historic First Security/Deseret Bank building, which the church and its development partners are now reconsidering. But the inn has also had its proponents.

A number of readers e-mailing the News after the church announced its plans questioned the need to raze the inn — most while praising the City Creek Center concept itself.

"The latest plans for the City Creek Center are far superior to previous attempts," Salt Lake City resident Chad Wasden wrote. "However, since the primary goal of this project is to protect the ambiance around Temple Square, it is ironic to raze the very structures that help create it."

And Weston Clark, also of Salt Lake City, wrote, "Something that makes downtown so unique is its historic value. After all, how else do we separate ourselves from the suburbs?"

Church representatives could not be reached to comment for this story, but when the plans were announced, they said the inn was never meant to stay around for long in the first place.

And barring any unforeseen problems, the building won't be around much longer. Orion Goff, in the city's permit department, said the church seems on track to be ready to tear down the inn on its target date of Nov. 13.

The church has applied for its demolition permit for the building, and Goff said it has been approved by four of the six agencies whose permission is required.

The looming demolition has led hundreds of people to try to book one last stay.

"From the hour of the announcement (of the City Creek Center plans), the phones were ringing off the hook," Wilkinson said. The hotel has been filled to capacity since, and some would-be guests had to be turned away.

Once the inn is gone, everything inside that can be sold will be. The inn's employees will go to work at other hotels in the area, thanks to job-relocation assistance provided by Temple Square Hospitality. But one thing will remain.

"Memories, at least, we get to keep," Wilkinson said.

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com