About the Tour

South Temple has been Salt Lake City's most prestigious address since pioneers first settled the valley. Brigham Young built his home near Temple Square and proclaimed that the street would become "the finest residence street of the city." By the late 19th century, Utah's newly wealthy class, flush with fortunes from mining, ranching, and finance, built lavish mansions along South Temple that rivaled the finest homes anywhere in the country. Almost all were designed by Utah architects whose work stood among the most accomplished in American West residential architecture. But by the 1960s, demolitions were accelerating. Grand mansions were coming down one by one, replaced by offices and apartment blocks. The losses on South Temple were among the defining moments that galvanized Utah's young preservation movement and helped give rise to the organization that would become Preservation Utah. The community's response worked. South Temple became Salt Lake City's first historic district in 1975 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District in 1982. The street still retains much of its original character today: original sandstone sidewalks and curbs, historic carriage steps and hitching posts, and the mature tree canopy that gives South Temple its signature grandeur. Sixty years later, we return to the street where it all began.