At a little after 6.30 this morning, the Key Bank Tower, a 30-year-old high-rise office building in downtown Salt Lake, was imploded to make way for the new City Creek Center redevelopment project. It was the first such implosion in the downtown area since the old Hotel Newhouse was demolished back in ’83 (which I didn’t care about at the time, but in retrospect seems a deep shame, especially since the place where the hotel stood is now — can you guess? — a parking lot! Moreover, a parking lot that is rarely anywhere near capacity! That was really worth taking out a historically interesting and beautiful building, wasn’t it?)

I haven’t been able to find an embeddable video of the Key Bank’s death to post up here, but if you go to KSL-TV’s site, there are several nifty clips for your viewing pleasure. I especially like Angle #1, which has a couple of men in the foreground to provide some scale and drama, and Angle #4, which is a long-distance shot that includes the First Security Building I wrote about a while back. (Look for the red glow; that would be the big neon sign I like so well.) With the Key Bank’s destruction, the so-called Crossroads Block — named for the mall that used to wrap around the base of the tower — is now clear. Meanwhile, across the street, the demolition of the ZCMI Center Mall continues. (Yes, you out-of-towners, Salt Lake used to have two malls right across the street from each other; it actually wasn’t as insane as it sounds, as they had a different mix of retailers and catered to different demographics. As with so many other things about Salt Lake culture, it’s a little complicated and it reflects the social schism between Mormons and non-Mormons…)

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A number of items from the Department of Changing Landscapes have caught my eye in recent days, but one in particular makes me a very happy boy indeed: I’ve learned that there is a genuine 1940s-vintage diner on its way to Utah even as I type this, the very one you see in the photo above.

I confess, I have a deep affection for old-tymey cafes and greasy spoons, the sorts of places where both of my grandmothers slung hash and where men in hats hunched over their eggs and coffee at long counters while they read the latest news about the War in Europe. There aren’t many such places left in Utah, and the ones that do still endure tend to be pretty far from the Wasatch Front, out in the small outpost towns of the state’s hinterlands. (I recommend Mom’s Cafe in Salina, if you ever find yourself in Salina for some reason.) As far as I know, however, Utah never had a diner like the one in the photo above, one of those streamlined prefab jobs that resemble train cars and turn up in period movies like, well, Diner.

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The Trib also has a brief history of Trolley Square, if you’re interested. Here’s the even-briefer version:

The area served as territorial and state fairgrounds until 1908 when Union Pacific Railroad magnate E.H. Harriman made it the site for an innovative trolley car system. At one time, more than 144 trolleys operated from mission-style car barns erected at the site. They served the area until the line was discontinued in 1945.

 

For years, Trolley persisted as a decaying garage for Utah Transit Authority buses and Utah Power maintenance vehicles and the historic block was littered with junk vehicles, old tires and trash contained within barbed wire. Then, in 1972, developers dedicated to historic restoration renovated the old barns, which were painted yellow at the time, into a collection of boutiques and trendy restaurants.

There has been talk lately of a new owner planning to do some major renovations on Trolley. I’ve been concerned that these plans (which of course have not been revealed to the public) will change the quirky Trolley characteristics that I described last night and personally like, namely the maze-like layout and dimly lighted corners. I suspect that the shootings will now make such changes inevitable regardless of whatever the earlier plans were, and all in the name of our singular modern concern, “security.”

[Ed. note: this topic is well past its prime — which was way back around the second week of December, if you’re keeping track — but it’s something I still wanted to talk about, so here we are…]

I write fairly often on this blog about the changing face of the Salt Lake Valley, how places and landmarks I’ve known all my life are disappearing, and how difficult it is for me to see them go. I’m not sure why this so-called “progress” affects me so deeply, but it does. Watching yet another familiar old house or historic commercial building fall, or an alfalfa field get paved over to make way for yet another WalMart-Home-Depot-Chili’s-cell-phone-store cluster, fills me with a genuine sense of despair. And it makes me downright angry that the local Utah culture, collectively speaking, pays so much lip service to its heritage by throwing a parade and fireworks every July 24th, but seems so disinterested in preserving any of the tangible aspects of its past, namely the buildings and landscapes of earlier times.

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