Comments about ‘The old Hotel Utah has long, storied history in Salt Lake’

Being from Utah i for some reason do not remember the Hotel Utah....what was the name of the other hotel that was demolished in the early 80's...i thought that was the Hotel Utah??..i guess I am wrong.can anyone help my memory on this one?

My visits to Utah from a small Idaho town were infrequent, but I remember that beautiful structure well. My auntie was a service elevator operator when I was a youngster. She took me to the roof top and impressed me with the restaurant, introduced me to the staff who showed me the delightful homemade deserts and pointed out the floors where "so and so" had stayed. It was magical. When I left for my mission in the 60s, we missionaries had meals in the basement. It wasn't as elaborate as it is today, but it brought back those elevator memories. However, with the current restoration, it is probably as beautiful today as it was when it was completed. Such a lovely part of a fascinating city.

ABC, I think you might be talking about the Newhouse Hotel where many people stay and they also hosted a great many events.

Wow ABC you must be kidding or pretty young!! The one that was demolished in the 80's was the Hotel Newhouse and the Hotel Temple Square went sometime later. The Hotel Utah was the meeting-place were all met their friends downtown to go shopping, etc. The lobby was and still is a wondrous sight. There was a hat/coat check guy there (about 60 years ago) who had an amazing memory and never used check stubs to mark someones hat or coat. One time my Dad told him that the coat he gave back to him was not his. The man said maybe that's not your coat but it was the one you gave me when you came in!!!! He was a great man who I enjoyed visiting with many times after that.

I worked there for 5 years in the hospitality as a hostess and loved it. It was a wonderful place to work and the people were so good to me. I have very wonderful memories of this beautiful building.

TO ABC:I BELIEVE THE HOTEL YOU WERE THINKING OF
WAS THE HOTEL NEWHOUSE,WHICH WAS IMPLODED AS A
RADIO STATION STUNT.I ATE SEVERAL MEALS AT THE
HOTEL UTAH.THE FOOD WAS GREAT AND NOT THAT EXPENSIVE.

I rememer shaking Richard M. Nixon's hand when he stepped out of his lomousine in front of the side entrance on Main Street. Salt Lake, Temple Square, and Hotel Utah seemed much grander and less parochial then than they do now before the church ruined it all by doing away with the hote, moving the Brigham Young monument and buying Main Street. Before it had the feel of a well designed grand boulevard, it now seems cluttered and uninspired. Such a shame.

Hotel Utah was Dorothy Parker's ("Boys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses.") favorite place to stay.

HUH?
The Newhouse wasn't imploded as a radio station stunt.
The history of the Hotel Utah is gone; I believe the LDS Church could have built office space somewhere else. It's too bad that a place for ALL of the people, was turned into yet-another proselytizing center.

Sad days in my life when Makoffs & the Hotel Utah closed. I found it very sad that they turned it into an office building, the grand old days are gone. We wen there one night as guest to a dinner on the roof during the Olympics, it was like a Chuck a Rama dinner, horrible food and lots of big fat people pigging out.
I miss the days of meeting my mother there for lunch in the basement with those great soups and wonderful hard rolls.
The Grand America is a lovely hotel with great rooms and good not great food but it isn't part of the downtown. I saw some great jazz concerts at the Hotel Utah.

"In 1907 Samuel Newhouse launched a significant building program in the city designed to shift the city's center from the Temple Square area south four blocks to Exchange Place between 300 and 400 South streets and between Main and State streets. In 1907 construction began on the city's first skyscrapers, the Boston and the Newhouse buildings. Just east of the two buildings, Newhouse donated land for construction of the Salt Lake Stock Exchange and Commercial Club buildings. Exchange Place was to be a little "Wall Street" with a grand hotel--the Newhouse Hotel--constructed between 1909 and 1915 across Main Street on the southwest corner of Main and 400 South."

My father worked as a "roast and boiler" chef at the Hotel for 30 yrs. from the late 40's thru the early '80s. His co-workers included men and women from all backgrounds, races and ethnicities. Names such as Tony Ferano, "Rosy" Sciumbato, Nick Theodor(opolis), Lee James, Andrew Sonzini, Herb Norman, Nelson Styles, Monroe Flemming and of course Gerard Beunemann ("the Chef") were part of our daily dinner conversation. Dad prepared breakfast for every president of the U.S. from Truman thru Ford--Kennedy just six weeks before he died. He satisfied them all except for LBJ, who had a highly cultivated taste for oatmeal. I have dozens of stories ranging from a slightly tipsy Chef Gerard's attempt to interupt President David O. McKay's eightieth birthday dinner to Dad's involvment with early unionizing attempts and the daily frustrations of life in the basement of a world class-hotel. Dad recently turned 96 and I have chronicled much of his story in a biography.

While lamenting the fact that the Hotel Utah no longer exists, please remember that the building was saved by the LDS church. It was going to be demolished if I remember correctly. It would have been a shame to lose such a part of history. Too bad the Hotel Newhouse could not have been saved. It's also too bad that there cannot be a balance to the city that Newhouse attempted. No one but the church wants to invest in the future of SLC.

The LDS Church already owned the building, so how did they "save" it by turning it into another church building?

If it was going to be demolished, it was at their own choice.

Remember, the best way to turn public sympathy towards a building, is to threaten to tear it down. That way, you get to do what you want to do.

Perhaps the reason that only the church wants to invest in downtown SLC, is because they make it difficult for anyone else. The downtown malls failed because almost everything was closed on Sunday. That takes away 14% of the business.

Even if you own it, if it does not make money and nothing changes then it will go away. The hotel went away. It was replaced by what it is now. I went to the Hotel Utah for my Junior Prom in 1983. It was by that time getting shabby. But no one was staying there. So I am happy that it is now what it is. I went to church in the building from 1991 to 1994 while I went to school at the U. President Benson was in my ward. So was GB Hinckley, Marvin J Ashton and James E Faust. The building is beautiful and being used and I am happy it is still there...

At first, I wanted to share some very special memories of the hotel, but once again, as usual, the "comments" area has become the home for the expression of the "anti" folks. How biased do you have to be to call the area "cluttered and uninspired?"
You also probably believe in global warming.

If the LDS Church couldn't make money with a historic hotel centrally located next to beautiful Temple Square, then I am worried their new malls (shabby or not) won't be financially viable either, given the current economic climate, competition from Gateway and as mentioned above - Sunday closure.

Do you really think this was a financial decision? (Some things are just more important, I guess.) I have a hunch the building is owned outright; there is little doubt this business would make money as a hotel - let's just let the owners use the building the way they want to - and, walking around town, I think they have got it figured out when it comes to class and design.

re: " - and, walking around town, I think they have got it figured out when it comes to class and design."

You find that great and spacious building (the conference center) has "class?" Do you also find the monster Church Office Building also has "class?"

Yes, the temple, Relief Society Building, and Church Administration Building have class. However, sadly, nothing the church has built downtown in the past 40 years has any class at all.

I worked at the Hotel Utah while going to college. To this day, it was the best job I ever had. The elegance of the hotel, the class and everything about it made this one of the most memorable events in my life. I made many friends at the Hotel Utah while working there. I shook hands with Neil Diamond, Charles Osgood, Dan Rather, Christie Brinkley, Billy Joel and even President Benson. When the hotel reopend in '93 I took my family on a group guided tour and told them of wonderful experiences I had there. Many of the people in the tour began listening to the stories I was telling instead of the tour guide who had no clue about the uniqueness of this amazing place. Nelson Styles was the coat check man. I recall tying his bow tie for him several times before he went on duty. He greeted me and everyone he knew with an ear to ear smile and "How ya do'in?". What a place! Nothing like it today. First class or no class was the Hotel Utah.