Greektown

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Many large cities in the United State have specific ethnic neighborhoods that developed over the years like San Francisco’s Chinatown; India Square in Jersey City, New Jersey and Little Odessa, Brooklyn, New York; Little Saigon in San Diego, California and Koreatown in Dallas, Texas. Salt Lake used to have J-Town on 100 South between 200 and 300 West and Greektown which surrounded the Church of Holy Trinity on 300 South and 300 West. All that’s left of those two neighborhoods are churches and some properties that they own.

This year before the annual Greek Festival was to happen downtown, I got a call from a member of the Greek community who said they were anticipating major parking problems with the festival. If you haven’t driven into the neighborhood since the Summer Farmer’s Markets in Pioneer Park ended, you would not have seen the residential high rise going up that’s slapped almost onto the back of Tony Caputo’s deli or noticed that Pierpont Avenue is blocked off for the building construction there. Also, the parking lot just south of the Crane Building on 200 South and 300 West is also full of construction vehicles as was the pay parking lot across the street where the Greek Fest sets up it’s inflatable bounce house and kids slide.  I suggested they work closely with UTA and get the patrons of the Festival educated on how easy it would be to ride the bus and TRAX to the September event rather than drive their cars and grumble about ‘no parking’.

The Holy Trinity and the other Greek Church (Prophet Elias) are talking to local developers to come up with ideas of how to provide income for the cathedral from it’s land holdings but also how to creatively re-vision the old Greektown neighborhood with updated housing, retail and office spaces to the dozen or so pieces of real estate they own surrounding the Cathedral by Pioneer Park. This includes the parking lot by the Crane building, the pay parking lot north of the Cathedral, some odd land parcels and the La France Apartment complex.

The La France apartments are around row houses that were built in 1905 before the Cathedral was designed and finished in 1923. They are a total retro heaven of run down low income housing that was originally built to last with high quality brick construction and old growth hardwood features. Just about every artist I’ve ever known has spent some time renting there or hanging out there. There are porches to each little attached house and neighbors sit in the summer and talk to people coming and going on Wayne Court and hold parties and festivals of their own. It’s a pretty groovy place to live and tenants never ever want to give up their leases. Sadly, the Greeks who own the La France haven’t had the funds to renovate the row houses and their fate may fall to a future wrecking ball. There’s no decision yet as to what the future will bring for old Greektown but the ghosts and history of the neighborhood will always remain.

No More Miracles

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When I was 15 years old, I was sent by my family to a small private school by the name of Wasatch Academy in little Mt. Pleasant, Utah, just north of Manti on scenic Highway 89.  Manti is the site of the fifth temple built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and you cannot miss that stone white church when you cruise through town because it sits high atop a hill overlooking the Sanpete valley.

Most people know Manti because of the Mormon Miracle Pageant which has been held on the grounds outside the Temple every summer since 1967. But alas, the church has announced that 2019 will be the last time visitors can see the outdoor theatrical performance where Christ visits America. You may say ‘This ain’t my circus and not my monkey’, but the fine folk of this tiny central Utah are mighty sad and returning visitors will miss Manti’s famous BBQ turkey sandwiches.  The two week extravaganza draws over 15,000 people to a town that has little more than 3000 residents and is massive money-maker for gas stations, hotels, restaurants and the businesses that line Main Street during the last two weeks of June.

The pageant is the story of the early days of the Church (think hand carts) and LDS tales and beliefs of characters and events of ancient American inhabitants found in the Book of Mormon. It was written by Grace Johnson in the 1940’s and in the 1950’s both BYU and BYU-Hawaii used her story as a reader’s theater at the schools. It was adapted into the pageant form in 1970 by Macksene Rux who directed the shows in Manti from 1970 to 1989. During the early years it was funded by local donations and vehicles were banned on Temple grounds so props, scenery, chairs, and equipment had to be hauled up the hill or put over the fence. It was an instant hit with locals and tourists and over 4.5 million visitors have watched the show since it’s beginning. There are over 1000 cast members, each in a costume and none are paid. You can volunteer right now by going on the website to participate in this last and final production.

What’s odd is that in 1991 the church announced that the production would close after 25 successful years. The Vice-chair of the pageant, President Gordon B. Hinkley refused to cancel the show! Will someone from the Quorum step up and save the town and the show like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney did in the 1939 movie ‘Babes in Arms’?  Only the Church will tell. My guess is this show will sell out almost as fast as the Tabernacle Choir’s gig with Kristin Chenoweth Christmas Concert at Temple Square. Both holiday concerts and the pageant have always been free, but you have to get tickets (www.mantipageant.org) to attend the show.

A Trolley’s Back

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This past October a large crane lowered an original street car (picture a cable car in San Francisco) in front of the Pottery Barn and just south of Whole Foods back to its home in Trolley Square on 700 East and 500 South. It is so ironic to me that at one time almost half the population of Salt Lake City rode trolley cars around town on almost 150 miles of track and today the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) can barely fill the TRAX trains during rush hours on less than 50 miles of rail. What was in went out, and now we want it back because mass transit is good.

The first trolley company was started by sons of Brigham Young and their first passenger trolley car was pulled by mules along 300 West South Temple to 300 South and State. I found a trolley ticket in an old book of Robert Browning poems I bought years ago and the fare was five cents. Originally it cost ten cents to ride but the brothers found by lowering the price they’d get more riders. The first electric streetcars in Utah began operating in October of 1908 and they were housed in the beautiful Mission-style buildings at Trolley Square.

I was a Planning and Zoning Commissioner for Salt Lake City when Whole Foods came to the city and wanted to put in a mega store smack dab in the middle of this historic block. I was definitely not a fan of the size of the project and how its designers originally failed to fit the new in with the old, but as you can see, Whole Foods did downsize its design and eventually fit in among the historic ‘barns’. They were built by a notorious railroad tycoon named Edward H. Harriman. He was infamous for never stopping to hunt down Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who had robbed his trains many times. He bought the 10 acre block of Trolley Square that had originally been the ‘Territorial Fairgrounds’ and put in the buildings that eventually held 144 street cars. There were blacksmiths and carpenters, conductors and electricians working inside the buildings. The old First Security Bank stand-alone structure (now gone and previously located where Whole Foods is now) was used to store sand needed for the rail system.

There’s a lot of history at Trolley Square and bringing back probably the only remaining original trolley car makes many people smile. It had been in storage for almost a decade after bulldozers came to start the food chain’s new location. The car has last housed the Trolley Wing Co. The urban mall is undergoing growth under new owner Khosrow Semnani and we may see a return of movie theaters, a food court as well as the multifamily development that will be going in across the street (600 South).

http://www.trolleysquare.com/history/