Hotel Utah At Night ~~~

The Old Hotel Utah At Night

(now the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg) Salt Lake City

After two years of construction and a $2 million price tag, the Hotel opened 9 June 1911

 "in a blaze of splendor" 

with a grand party for 500 of Utah's notables. The hotel enjoyed great success until World War I when occupancy fell about 50 percent.

           On June 9, 1911, the Deseret Evening News proclaimed:

"Utah Hotel Opens in Blaze of Splendor."

Today the creamy-white structure, sheathed in enameled brick and terra cotta, is no longer a hotel, though such it was for 76 memory-stuffed years.

It is the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. In 1993 it was rechristened in honor of the Mormon church founder, having been repurposed for various functions, from administrative offices to gathering places, by its owner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS landmark is a key component of the expanded Temple Square campus.