Month: July 2013

Homes of LDS Church leaders in Yalecrest

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From Yalecrest’s early history into modern times — prophets and apostles of the LDS Church were among the neighborhood’s most notable residents alongside captains of industry, professionals, academicians, government officials and civic leaders.

During the pre and post-war years, three  LDS prophets – George Albert Smith, Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson – resided in Yalecrest or its nearby streets, while either serving as head of the church or at different stages of their adult lives.

One of Yalecrest’s most iconic architectural structures – 1389 Harvard Ave.,  with its one-of-a-kind-swirled roof pattern, and castle-like turret in the entry-way –  was home to President Benson before he was appointed Secretary of Agriculture under U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower. Built in 1929, the 3,700 square foot Tudor stands today as a lasting reminder of a bygone era steeped in timeless beauty.

The first Salt Lake City home on the National Register of Historic Places, a spacious 3,800 square foot bungalow at 1302 Yale Ave., was the residence of President George Albert Smith, while he served as the eighth president of the LDS Church from 1945-1951. The original hardwood floors and leaded windows are still preserved in this brick and stone structure built in 1914.

President Spencer W. Kimball lived in two different houses in the Yalecrest area during his lifetime. One was a two-story brick Tudor at 1000 Military Drive, with a large peaked roof on the south end of the house resting over a series of narrow, rectangular leaded windows.  The other was  a one-story 3,200 square foot brick home at 2028 Laird Drive, built in 1947. His residency on Laird Drive was during his service as President of the LDS Church

Joseph Fielding Smith, LDS President from 1970-1972, raised his family at 998 Douglas Street. The 5,300 square foot residence, built in 1926, is situated just west of Yalecrest in the Gilmer Park area. Some of  the original historical features of the home have been preserved including the quarter sawn oak in the doors, mantle and library.

In modern times, two current Apostles of the LDS Church – Elder Dallin H. Oaks and Elder Russell M. Nelson – lived in Yalecrest at 1813 Yale Ave., and 1347 Normandie Circle respectively while serving in the Quorum of the Twelve.  Both have since moved from the neighborhood.  Four other apostles of the LDS Church –Elders  Marion G. Romney, Mark E. Petersen, Neal A. Maxwell, and Joseph B. Wirthlin – all resided here while serving as apostles and Elder Huge B. Brown was a resident before he was called to serve in the church.   Elder Romney’s home was in the Monument Park First Ward at 1903 Yale Ave. Elder Petersen resided at 852 Diestel Road and Elder Maxwell lived at 2059 Herbert Ave.  Elder Wirthlin owned two homes in Yalecrest, first, and relatively briefly at 1671 Harvard Ave., and then for well over 50 years at 932 Military Drive. Elder Wirthlin’s home on Military Drive is a classic 3,200 square foot Tudor built in 1928. Elder Oaks’ home on Yale, also a Tudor built in 1928.

President Hugh B. Brown lived at 1771 Harvard Ave. for a few years in the early 1950s before he was called as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The 2,300 square foot brick home was built in 1930.

A few members of the LDS Church’s Quorum of the Seventy – Elders Royden G. Derrick, Sterling W. Sill and Joseph W. Anderson – also lived in Yalecrest.  Elder Anderson lived at 1732 Yalecrest Ave. and Elder Sill resided at 1264 Yale in the 1940s.

——- Jan Hemming

Remember the Dictaphone?

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Salt Lake Desk Exchange

This 1936 photo of the Salt Lake Desk Exchange (advertising dictaphones) is courtesy of the Salt Lake County Archives.


Rulon and Bessie Davis were the first residents of 1784 Harvard Avenue. You don’t see guys like Rulon around here anymore. I mean, when was the last time you bumped into a dictaphone salesman on your block? Rulon was a distributor and the branch manager for The Dictaphone Sales Corporation. He lived here in the mid 1930’s. Multiple SLC companies sold dictaphones.

Old newspaper ads for LDS Business College often pictured a woman with a dictaphone. Besides dictaphones, the school offered classes on telegraphy, calculating machines, shorthand, and bookkeeping. “Business is calling for thousands of qualified workers.”

One of my favorite dictaphone ads was placed by The Columbia Stores Co, 221 S West Temple. Even though his wife disapproved, the ad writer said he loved smoking his old pipe. And when he went down to the front office smoking his pipe at work, he noticed the “operators’ noses take an elevation of about 45 degrees.” But he didn’t have to choose between the stenographers and his pipe. He could have them both because they used (drum roll) DICTAPHONES! “We shoot it through the speaking tube to a good wax record. The boy simply leaves the cylinders up in front… We don’t disturb them, and they don’t disturb us.” Ha! What a great business tool.

But dictaphones had other uses as well. Like in cases of espionage!

You can read about one case in the June 18, 1918 edition of the Salt Lake Telegram. A Pocatello crime was foiled because a detective planted a dictaphone in the room of two men plotting to rob and kill the proprietor of a certain store. Officers with their revolvers ready hid at the store and nabbed the Brigham City man and his cohort before they could commit their crimes and escape on the 10 o’clock train to Salt Lake City.

I can’t imagine not noticing a “planted” dictaphone. It must’ve been a messy room. I wonder how much recording time you get with one of those too. Lucky timing and great detective work, I guess.

Writing this makes me think of my old neighbor friend again. Once I stopped by while she was watching a movie with a switchboard scene. My eyes were on her TV when I heard her say sarcastically, “I suppose you don’t remember those days?” There’s a lot I wasn’t here for, but I love that I can still look at Rulon’s house and many other homes in Yalecrest and think about the people in our neighborhood and Salt Lake City’s History.

Rulon

Rulon (the dictaphone salesman) and Bessie Davis once lived here.

—Kelly Marinan