Preserving Murray's History: The Fight to Save Historic Buildings

Preserving Murray’s History: The Fight to Save Historic Buildings

Despite attempts to save the historic Arlington School, Murray City is considering selling it to a developer.

August 10, 2023

Drive down the stretch of State Street between 4800 South and Vine Street and you’ll wonder if you’ve gone back in time. Historic buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places like the Desert Star Theatre and the Murray Theatre line the street. Take a detour through the neighboring Murray Downtown Residential Historic District where you’ll see rows of charming old houses and … a seven story high-rise of brand new condos.

The condos are going up on the site of the historic Murray 1st Chapel, built in 1907, and Carnegie Library built in 1915. The buildings were demolished in 2020. There’s a noticeable difference in the neighborhood. Murray City lost a landmark, and its residents lost their sense of place.

The historic Murray First Ward, courtesy of Murray City Museum. Demolished in 2020.

These buildings were saved from demolition once. The founder of Historic Murray First Foundation, Kathleen Stanford, filed a lawsuit against Murray City in 2017, according to an article on KSL.com. Stanford alleged the plan to demolish the historic buildings violated two city codes. The article states that Judge Keith Kelly said the city’s planning commission did not review or apply the codes related to historic buildings in their decision. Soon after losing the lawsuit, Murray City dismantled their ordinances to protect historic buildings.

“People are getting sick of losing things that make Murray feel like home,” says Rachel Morot, Vice President and founding member of Historic Murray First Foundation.

Historic Murray First Foundation is fighting to save Murray’s historic buildings. Meeting every two weeks at board members’ houses, the small nonprofit made up of seven friends, neighbors, and history-loving Murrayites, plans walking tours of historic homes, educational lectures, and campaigns to save their city’s historic buildings.

According to their website, their mission is: “… advocacy, education, and fundraising to preserve and repurpose the unique architecture of the historic downtown section of Murray City which is at immediate risk of demolition and redevelopment.”

Community advocacy is a lot of work, but this little group is making a difference. Historic Murray First Foundation was able to make preservation a key platform in the city’s last election. They’ve also kept preservation at the forefront of the city’s consciousness, says Morot. “If it weren’t for our efforts, the city would be able to ignore historic preservation entirely.”

Condominiums rise in Murray’s Historic District. Photo by Rachel Morot.

The foundation has a vision for Murray City that includes preserving, restoring and repurposing historic buildings. On their website, they spell out what historic preservation means. Besides creating affordable housing and walkable neighborhoods, historic preservation means higher property values and saving money on new construction. Economic development doesn’t have to mean tearing down Murray’s history. Their website states, “A healthy and vibrant community needs a good balance of both the old and the new to continue thriving and serving its people.”

Their last campaign was an attempt to save the Arlington School at 5052 South State Street. This building had many incarnations, the latest of which was the home of Murray’s City Hall. On their website, Historic Murray First Foundation detailed the reasons why this historic building deserved to be saved. The Arlington was designed with a nod to the Art Deco style by Scott & Welch, which also designed the SLC Masonic Temple. This building was also a Works Progress Administration project to help the community after the Great Depression. The Arlington also has a unique park-like setting with a wide green open space, which is rare along State Street.

Murray City wants to sell the building to a developer who will likely tear it down for another high-rise apartment building. Despite their grassroots efforts to save and repurpose the building, it looks like the city will get its way, again. “There is a lot of ambivalence in Murray because so often things go the way of the developers and the city, rather than the voting taxpayers,” admits Morot, but she doesn’t sound defeated. She wants the real stakeholders to speak up. “When you talk about stakeholders, it’s the people who live in this community who have to be overshadowed by these giant highrises.”

With limited volunteers and funds, Historic Murray First Foundation is doing their best to preserve Murray’s historic buildings in a city determined to bring in more revenue by tearing them down. Without codes to protect the buildings, it’s going to be a challenge. If you’d like to help Historic Murray First Foundation, they are actively seeking volunteers, a volunteer coordinator, board members, and help with grant writing. They’re also seeking donations. Visit their website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram for updates and more information.

Community Relations, Housing, Utah Development, Utah History

Amanda Rock

Development Projects

Ogden Utah: Boomtown, Bargain, or Utah’s Next Unaffordable City?

With its reinvigorated downtown and close proximity to mountains and river pathways, this northern Utah city is enjoying a renaissance. Ogden’s stock of affordable housing — compared to other metros along the Wasatch Front — currently draws people in for a closer look.
Investigation

The Utah Bombings That Exposed One of America’s Greatest Forgers

On an ordinary October morning in 1985, downtown Salt Lake City was shattered by a blast that killed businessman and document collector Steve Christensen. Hours later, a second bomb tore through a quiet Holladay neighborhood, killing Kathy Sheets, the wife of Christensen’s former business partner. The next day saw a third explosion. This one was in a car near Temple Square that nearly killed rare-documents dealer Mark Hofmann.

Rumors swirled instantly, tying the attacks to money, religion, and shadowy early-Mormon documents Christensen had recently acquired. For days, Utah held its breath. What unfolded was stranger and darker than fiction. The bombs weren’t the work of religious extremists or enemies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but instead, the doings of Mark Hofmann himself. Hofmann was a nerdy, soft-spoken dealer who had secretly become one of the most skilled document forgers in American history.

His creations were so convincing that they reshaped historical narratives, fooling scholars, collectors, and church leaders. When the lies began to close in, the bombs became his final, desperate attempt to keep his world from collapsing.

Hofmann had been fabricating Mormon and American historical documents for years. He was a prodigy of deception, sourcing period paper, mixing inks that cracked just right, and mimicking handwriting with obsessive precision. Most of all, he knew how to read people. Utah in the 1970s and ’80s was a collector’s paradise. As bookseller Ken Sanders told Salt Lake Magazine, it was “a consciousness shift,” a recognition that rare Utah history was a treasure worth pursuing. It was also, he notes, fertile ground for affinity fraud.

Nothing captured that vulnerability more than the Salamander Letter, a supposed 1830s correspondence which claimed Joseph Smith encountered a magical white salamander rather than an angel. The document shook Latter-day Saint circles. Church leaders, worried about its implications, quietly purchased it along with other materials Hofmann dangled before them. Many reasoned that if the church was willing to buy it, then it must be authentic and true, and Hofmann understood that psychology perfectly.

Continue reading and support independent Utah journalism with a purchase of Utah Stories (Digital + Print) or 3 month free trial (Digital).
Utah Stories

Utah Wants Affordable Homes. So Why Did It Kill the Starter Home Bill?

Utah leaders have spent years talking about affordable housing.

Governor Spencer Cox has repeatedly emphasized the need for more attainable housing, with a goal of creating tens of thousands of starter homes priced below $300,000. Yet despite broad agreement that housing affordability remains one of the state’s biggest challenges, one proposal designed specifically to encourage the construction of smaller, more affordable single-family homes failed to advance during the most recent legislative session.

The question raises an uncomfortable issue: if Utah agrees there is a shortage of starter homes, why are those homes still so difficult to build?

According to attorney and real estate professional Asha Klarich, much of the debate comes down to how communities want to grow and who gets to make those decisions.

House Bill 184, known as the Small Lots and Starter Homes Amendment, was intended to reduce regulatory barriers and allow smaller homes to be built on smaller lots. The proposal would have created a process for builders and homeowners to seek exceptions to local zoning requirements and construct homes on lots as small as roughly 5,400 square feet.

The idea was straightforward. Smaller lots generally mean lower land costs. Lower land costs can translate into lower home prices.

For many first-time buyers, that sounds far more appealing than another apartment building or densely packed townhome development.

“I think most people would prefer a smaller home on a smaller lot than apartment-style living in a high-rise,” Klarich said during a recent discussion about housing legislation.

The bill ultimately failed.

Continue reading and support independent Utah journalism with a purchase of Utah Stories (Digital + Print) or 3 month free trial (Digital).
Community Relations

The End of an Era? FanX and the Salt Palace Closure

For more than a decade, FanX has called the Salt Palace home. With the convention center set to close for a massive renovation, founder Dan Farr is preparing for a new chapter while planning one final celebration in its longtime venue.