A look at Salt Lake City’s 4 different public libraries and more …

 “S.L. outgrows 1905 Library” was a Jan. 10, 1947 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.

The story stated that the library building, designed to serve a population of 35,0000, was now outdated with a then, in 1947, population of 180,000.

Located at 15 South State Street, this library was overcrowded and strained by 1947. The facility also had some fire safety concerns.

The story stated that the American Library Association had declared Salt Lake’s library as one of the poorest in the west.

“The library needs money,” the story stated.

The total circulation of books in 1946 was almost 800,000, an increase of more than 40,000 over the previous year.

The bad news that it would still be 17 more years until a new library, the third version, opened at 500 South and 200 East.

After a $400,000 renovation, the former library building became the Hansen Planetarium from 1965 until 2003. (Then, the Planetarium had a new facility at 110 S. 400 West).

Salt Lake City outgrew its third library by the end of the 20^th Century. In 2003, an $84 million new library facility opened at 210 E. 400 South.

Note that Salt Lake City’s first library was located in the Salt Lake City and County Building. It operated there for only six years, from 1898 to 1904.

-“Destroy landmark of pioneer days” was a July 23, 1913 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner newspaper.

A chain gang of vandals had destroyed an old adobe wall in City Creek Canyon, that was part of a pioneer mill built in 1847. George Crisman constructed the mill (to grind wheat) and wall with the encouragement of Brigham Young.

-The first private roller skating rink ever built in Utah opened in Mill Creek Canyon, at Oakwood” in 1906.

According to the Salt Lake Telegram of July 12, 1906, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin F. Holmes were building the outdoor rink, that was 60 feet by 60 feet.

“It is for the use of the young people that visit it,” Mr. Holmes stated in the story.

At that time, in the early 20^th Century, there was a roller skating craze in the nation. Even Saltair resort, on the southern shores of the Great Salt Lake, was also planning to create its own roller skating rink.

-Mill Creek Canyon was a big draw in 1937. According to the Salt Lake Telegram of Jan. 21, 1938, with 176,420 visitors during 1937.

Big Cottonwood was the Salt Lake County leader with 217,247 visitors in 1937. Little Cottonwood Canyon only had 13,610 patrons.