Sugarhouse Cookie

Christmas In Vegas

2011-01-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

Halloween

2010-11-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

First Day Of School

2010-09-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

Sunrise In Midway

2010-09-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Birthday Party

2010-07-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

Watery Wednesday

2010-07-21T01:43:00.000-07:00

Click HERE for more watery photos.

Big Cottonwood Canyon Scottish Chief Mine

2010-07-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

I think I should go in there.

After all, Brett went in.

It's cool in here. Literally.

The tunnel divides. This is where we turn around and come out, Brett saying the whole time, "Don't touch the walls. You never know what could be unstable.

One Lonely Duck Left @ Liberty Park

2010-07-03T00:12:00.000-07:00

a windblown kid is somewhere at this park....

still cleaning up the oil...

Black and White Sunday

2010-06-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

Liberty Park, Sunday, June 27, 2010

Joel's Living Room

Midway Cemetary

I Am Given The Most Fantasmagorical Drawings

2010-06-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

Ethan and Cora Mae mailed me some drawings and letters.

I sure don't want any of these guys sneaking up on me.

Salt Lake City's Very Own Oil Spill

2010-06-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Picnic & Oil Clean-Up, Bring The Whole Family

R. I. P., Brighton

2010-06-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

We who choose to surround ourselves

with lives even more temporary

than our own, live within a fragile circle;

easily and often breached.

Unable to accept its awful gaps,

we would still live no other way.

We cherish memory as the only

certain immortality, never fully

understanding the necessary plan...

Irving Townsend

"The Once Again Prince"

My Beautiful Daughter

2010-05-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

Granddaughter's Ballet Concert in the Atrium

2010-05-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

Alice

2010-05-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not with your brother,

but you were still my sister.

photo, Cheryl Edwards

Happy Birthday, Amy - April 30

2010-05-02T00:21:00.001-07:00

City Creek Canyon Gray Day

2010-04-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

View From My Hot Tub, Through the Seasons

2010-03-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Place That Turns Everything Green

2010-03-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Amelia Susan Edwards, February 21, 2010

2010-02-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

pacing the halls -

2010-02-04T09:53:00.000-08:00

What, another Birthday?!!

It's shocking, but Nanny is entering her 97th year. She is such a good sport about saving gizzard meat and dressing up as a superhero and a motorcycle Moll.
Love you, Nanny!

Sugarhouse Park

2010-01-11T00:25:00.000-08:00

Mom's Childhood Home, 2009 10th East, Sugarhouse

2009-12-28T06:54:00.000-08:00

Sugarhouse Santa Shack

2009-12-24T07:20:00.000-08:00

Liberty Park

2009-12-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

Jitterbug Coffee Shop

2009-12-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

"I Think I'll Highlight My Hair To Match My Outfit"

2009-12-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

Sugarhouse Park

2009-11-25T05:49:00.000-08:00

(early fall)

Canadian Geese (yesterday)

(yesterday)

Mallard duck (yesterday)

The DoDo Restaurant, across the street from Park - Contemplative Patron

(yesterday)

(section of mural on wall of DoDo)

First Big Sugary Snow

2009-11-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

"This Old House" Honors Sugarhouse

2009-11-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

Sugarhouse has been named Utah’s best city by “This Old House” magazine. The cozy bungalow and cottage-style homes that are a staple of the community were called a “first-time homebuyer’s delight” by the magazine, which named one city for each state in the nation and one in Canada.

Liberty Park

2009-11-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

Old Sugarhouse Homes

2009-11-17T20:45:00.000-08:00

photos by Kathryn Feigal

Photos of Vanishing Sugarhouse

2009-10-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

This 3-D painting by Paul Heath captures many of the Sugarhouse landmarks. The wonderful Kuong Jou has been replaced by a chain restaurant and more of Sugarhouse is slated for demolition and a bland development NOT in keeping with local history and character. Such a sham! An abomination, really.

Salt Lake Costume

Irving Jr. High

now gone

St. Annes' School

The Granite Block follows the classic story of urban gentrification. During the period when Mecham was aquiring the properties (1976-1988) many Sugar House merchants were struggling and going out of business, mainly due to the growing popularity of subruban malls. Sugar House had been Salt Lake City's local hub for fine furniture and appliances. Today only two furniture stores remain. According to area resident Doug White, during this time Sugar House was a neighborhood filled with "run-down old homes". Like many older urban suburbs, however, the Sugar House area has made a tremendous comeback in recent years. Old homes have seen new life with extreme makeovers commonly including second levels, master suites, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. Its now not uncommon to see homes around Sugar House sell for upwards of $400,000. Property investors have bought up "dogs" they can "flip" to make a quick profit. As a result streets that were once occupied by low-income bohemian hippies and artists have slowly been sold and bought up by more wealthy yuppie professionals. The Granite Block was considered the last hold out where the more counter-cultural hippies and punks in their words could still, "be themselves."

The fight over the proposed plans became somewhat of a culture war. Many more wealthy professionals view the protection efforts as being spear-headed by "punks and druggies". Wealthier professionals also often tended to view the Granite Block as "old and dilapidated." In the end, Mecham had the more convincing argument by obtaining confirmation from the County Examiner who declared the buildings "very unsafe, without any viable means for seismic upgrades to restore structural integrity." Comments from our previous video posted on YouTube demonstrate the differing attitudes towards the project. The same stark contrast was found on forums for the Salt Lake Tribune stories about Sugar House. (which unfortunatley were not preserved in their archives) However, it wasn't only "drugged out hippies" who were calling for preservation.

Gone

Old Sugarhouse

2009-10-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Story of Sugarhouse

Brigham Young's Sugar Beet Dreams

by Richard Markosian in Utah Stories Magazine, Nov., 2009

These are pictures of the factory which gave Sugarhouse its name. The odd thing is that the factory never produced a grain of sugar. It was later turned in to a paper factory but the name of the area, Sugarhouse stuck, I guess, because it sounded better than Paperhouse. The paper factory was later re-established at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon in the building known as the Old Mill.

For the first 20 years the Mormons were in the Salt Lake Valley, sugar was a rare, expensive commodity: $35.81 per pound in today's dollars.

In Pioneer days it would have been common knowledge that Napoleon Bonaparte began the world's first sugar beet processing in 1811. Prior to this innovation, sugar had to be extracted from sugar cane. Other sweeteners were used in the form of molasses made from beets or sorghum.

The sugar beet productions process required the use of CO2, lime and bone char to remove the impurities from beet juice. The French were the first to utilize a vacuum chamber that could lower the boiling temperature of purified syrup making it possible to crystallize syrup into granular sugar.

This was a modern marvel in the 19th century and the industrious Mormon Pioneers saw dollar signs when they considered what a benefit it would be to be the first sugar producer in the quickly-growing Western United States.

Brigham Young ordered John Taylor and Phillip DeLamore to head the Deseret Manufacturing Company (DMC) and sent them to learn sugar production in France. Taylor purchased the equipment in Liverpool and made arrangements to have it shipped across the Atlantic to New Orleans. They then had to haul 10 tons of equipment, but found their wagons insufficient; they had to buy a team of Santa Fe Prairie Schooners.

Young also ordered a building constructed that would be used to process the sugar beets. It was efficiently built - beets go in one end, sugar comes out the other. Unfortunately, turning beets into sugar proved much more complex than anyone imagined.

First, there were problems hauling the enormous equipment over the mountains. The vacuum pan, which was estimated to weigh over six tons, had to be abandoned in Logan canyon over the winter.

Once the Mormons were able to move the vacuum pan they began working on calibrating the process.

After months, sugar still wasn't being made and Young removed Taylor from the job and took over operations himself. Young moved all the equipment just outside of his estate near Temple Square so he could directly supervise. Wilford Woodruff cheered Young on and believed strongly that if anyone could make sugar it would be the Prophet. But Young also failed.

In the end, the Mormons produced a sugar that would "take the end of your tongue off." Brigham Young would not live to see sugar produced in Utah, but his successor, Woodruff, re-established the effort thirty years later.

Woodruff, along with Heber C. Grant, raised $100,000 - a fortune at the time - from the wealthiest Mormon businessment to revive the sugar business. After hiring a sugar technology specialist, they built a $400,000 factory in Lehi, Utah. The new factory was capable of processing 1000 tons of beets into sugar per day.

Later, U&I (Utah and Idaho) Sugar had to face charges of price fixing and monopolistic practices by the U.S. Justice Department.

Over time, the LDS Church sold the majority of their interests in U&I Sugar to church members. But for nearly 100 years sugar beet farming had been the perfect industry for large LDS families with an abundance of children.

(photo circa 1920 - from the Utah State Historical Society): a young girl is holding a sugar beet and the equivlant amount of sugar the beet will produce

This is 21st So. between McClelland and Highland Drive (south side of street) in the 1940's.

21st So. 1930's

Simpson Ave. 1950's

Old Fire Station - now a Pottery Making Store

This is looking west from the top of the prison wall in 1948. The prison fence was next to 21st South.

Close-up of the prison entrance.

This is Sugarhouse on 21st South and Highland Drive (11th East) looking east toward Parley's Canyon. Irving Jr. High School can be seen to the left and behind the top of the obelisk. The Utah State Prison is just beyond the point where 21st South disappears in the distance.

Highland Drive with policeman

Forest School

Success Market located on 21st South and Highland Dr. in 1934.

The old Coon Chicken Inn was located at 2960 South Highland Drive.

Coon Chicken Inn

by a descendant of Maxon Lester Graham

As a descendant of the original founders of the Coon Chicken Inn, I would like to first preface this web page by saying that I do not condone the “Jim Crew” attitudes of the day. I and ALL of my siblings believe in full equality for all races, creeds and skin colors. The legacy that was left by my grandparents was one that seemed to be normal business practice that has since seen its day and I for one am grateful for it. What is left behind are artifacts of “Black Memorabilia” that serve as a reminder that this particular part of history must never and will never be repeated. The following is a brief history of the Coon Chicken Inn.

The Coon Chicken Inn was founded by Maxon Lester Graham. To understand the history of the Coon Chicken Inn, you must understand my grandfather. He was born June 17, 1879 and almost immediately had a flair for business. During the period from 1923 to 1924, he took on distribution of several makes of cars including the Carter Car, Dort, Moon, Elcar and finally the Gray. In 1924 the M.L. Graham Co. had a profitable year.

Maxon had married Adelaide Burt and they were looking for a new business to get into. For sometime they had been driving to a small town, south of Salt Lake City, for Sunday dinner, at a small restaurant that served excellent chicken. It was quick to prepare and they thought would do well in Salt Lake. At the time there were no outside hamburger type stands anywhere, the only places to eat were in town. At the edge of Salt Lake City, in one of its suburbs, Sugar House, they found a location on a corner of Highland Drive and found a small building, near the West Side School that contained three stools, an Ice box and a small counter. They bought this for $50.00 and in 1925 they were in the chicken business.  The business took off immediately and it was not long that they enlarged the place, and put in an addition with tables and a dance floor along with adding counter space. By 1927 they had added so many additions that it started to look a Katzenjammer castle. On the week before the fourth of July, 1927 about 6 P.M., the restaurant caught on fire. The place was grease soaked from deep fat frying, and soon the fire was out of control. This tragedy was about three months after the Salt Air Pavilion, located on Great Salt Lake, had burned to the ground. The organizers of the Pavilion had hired over 250 carpenters to rebuild it so Maxon and Addie had no trouble finding the help to rebuild the restaurant. They were afraid that other places that had sprung up in competition to them, would take their business. So they erected a sign stating that the place would be re-opened within ten days. They opened on schedule with a banner crowd.  Late in the year 1929 they opened another Coon Chicken Inn in Seattle on Lake City Way N.E. Soon Maxon and Addie moved to Seattle. In the year 1930 they added the restaurant on Sandy Boulevard in Portland, Oregon. All three sites were booming and a cabaret and orchestra was added in Seattle and Salt Lake with a larger dining room and the addition of delivery trucks for outside catering. Maxon decided that if a gimmick were added for the children, it would help bring in the parents. He added the famous head logo to the entrances of the inns. At the time it proved quite popular. The logo of the Inn was on every dish, silverware item, menu and paper product.  The Coon Chicken Inn ran until the late 1950’s when Maxon and Addie decided to keep the properties and lease out the buildings to other operators. On the Seattle site is Yings Drive Inn, the Salt Lake City site is the Chuck-A-Rama and the Portland site is the Prime Rib.

Columbus School on 2530 South 5th East in 1930