Yale Avenue

Alma Clayton

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AlmaCroppedYalecrest has always had some impressive men and women working in Education.  One of them was Alma Clayton (1755 Yale Ave).  Alma worked quite a few years for the SLC School District.  He was the only attendance/truant officer for the whole city.    In 1908 SLC schools reported 478 truancy cases, 62 cases of corporal punishment and 81 suspensions.  With more children entering school each year, I’m sure Alma was kept very busy.

At the end of 1909 Alma was pulling in an even $100 a month.  That was the year he helped create a living flag in honor of President Taft’s visit.  The flag was composed of at least 1600 school children.  This sight brought tears to our president’s eyes.

Living_Flag_in_Distance

The Board of Education must have appreciated Alma’s work.  They authorized the purchase of a brand new motorcycle for him.

Alma was also assigned the task of catching the “hungry burglar” who had been sneaking into various schools and cooking himself some scrambled eggs or maybe a custard pudding with coconut frosting.  Sometimes the burglar would do the dishes afterwards.  Sometimes he chose to take a nap in the principal’s office and smoke some cigarettes there. He always left before the janitor got to work in the morning.  (Alma caught him in the cooking act.)

AlmaClayton

Alma spoke at a mass meeting in favor of not abolishing the Juvenile Court.  He said he seldom sent any child to the Court, but having the Court behind him meant a lot to him in his work.  Representatives from Episcopal, Catholic, LDS, Jewish, and Unitarian organizations along with other civic-minded groups, stood with him in support.

Alma lived in his Yalecrest home until he died in 1957.  For over 10 years he was one of 3 Alma’s living on his block.  My guess is that the nearby middle school was named after this Yalecrest man.

–Kelly Marinan

Sources:
SLC Board of Education “Years of Challenge: Public Education in SLC 1890-1965”
SLC Board of Education Minutes, Oct 10, 1911.
Salt Lake Tribune articles:
“About SLC’s Public Schools” Jan 13, 1909.
“Board of Education Has a Busy Meeting” Aug 18, 1909.
“Tears in the Eyes of President Taft” Sept 27, 1909.
“Hungry Burglar is Found in School” Nov 24, 1915.
“Urge Retention of the Juvenile Court” Jan 27, 1917.
Living flag photo used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.

Walking Tour Saturday, Oct. 12

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K.E.E.P. Yalecrest is hosting an educational neighborhood walk Saturday, Oct. 12 from 1-3 p.m. to highlight the architectural styles and historicity of some notable homes located on the 1300-1500 East blocks of Harvard and Yale Avenues.

We’ll meet at Harvard Ave. and 13th East and walk east to 15th East, then down Yale Avenue and back to the start.

We will be viewing a variety of exterior architectural elements from the sidewalk in small groups and giving a brief synopsis of notable people or events related to certain houses.

The tour is open to the public and we’re suggesting a $5 donation for participants who are not current members of our organization. A $25 per person or $50 per family annual membership is also available.

This is our first tour event and we’re very excited about the wonderful bits of history we’ve uncovered in our preparations.  We hope to see you Saturday!

If you don’t make the tour, here’s the program: Yalecrest Notable Homes Tour Oct 12 2013

HarvardYale_tour_map

Yalecrest Members of Historic Ladies’ Literary Club

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Ladies Literary Club Book

The Ladies Literary Club recently donated their 100-year-old building at 850 E. South Temple to the Utah Heritage Foundation. UHF is refurbishing and will open for public events in 2014.

It was absolutely wonderful hearing the news that the Ladies’ Literary Club gifted their South Temple building to the Utah Heritage Foundation.  How fortunate for South Temple.  And for ALL of us.  Some cool old architecture and a piece of our history… SAVED from a potential wrecking ball.  Sweet.

The news got me curious though.  I figured a building like that had to have some good stories and people around it.  Who were these ladies anyway?  What were their meetings like?  How could they afford such a building… and so long ago?  The group’s leaders had to be strong, powerful, intelligent women.

I surfed over to the City Library and noticed they had what looked like an interesting little book on the LLC, written in 1927.   I had to go check this book out.

I glanced through the Table of Contents.  Skimmed through some funny little passages.  Looked at the old pictures of their Club Presidents and then noticed at the back of the book that it listed its members– with their addresses!

And I thought, “Anything happening in SLC’s history is bound to include people from YALECREST!”  It always has in the past.  And continues to this day.  So I took a closer look to see if I was right.

Not all of Yalecrest was built by 1927.  Yet I counted 21 women from Yalecrest.  Most of them living on Yale Avenue.

The earliest Yalecrest members joined in 1913:

Mrs. Kent R. Burt, 1405 Yale
And Mrs. A. N. Hanson, 1385 Yale

I wonder how the following two were related?  Sister-in-laws?  Mother and daughter-in-law?  Other?

1349 Yale, Mrs Don E. Ray (1921)
1408 Yale, Mrs W. W. Ray (1925)

Mrs. E.M. Bagley, 1411 Yale, was a lifetime member (1914).   I see, she was also voted President.

Other members are found on:  Gilmer, 13th East, 9th South, Harvard, Michigan, and Sunnyside.

I KNEW Yalecrest would be represented and involved!

—Kelly Marinan

Learn more about the building and acquisition at UtahHeritageFoundation.org