Sugar House, Salt Lake City, Utah
Encyclopedia
Sugar House is a neighborhood in Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

, United States. One of the city's oldest neighborhoods, the name is officially two words (Sugar House) although it is often written as one (Sugarhouse). Sugar House is also the site of Westminster College
Westminster College, Salt Lake City
Westminster College is a private liberal arts college located in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah. The college comprises four schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, the School of Education, and the School of Nursing and Health...

.

Location

Sugar House is located within the Salt Lake City grid system roughly from about 500 East at its western edge to 2100 East at the east and 1300 South to 2700 South north to south, and is mostly to the boundaries of Salt Lake City. Many local business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

es as well as private residences, although not strictly located within the bounds of Sugar House, use the name because of the area's name recognition. The business and commercial center of the neighborhood is located at 1100 East 2100 South which is also the northern end terminus of Highland Drive (1100 East).

History

Sugar House was established in 1853, six years after Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 led the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...

 settlers into the valley
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

. Its name derives from the sugar beet
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...

 test factory of the Deseret Manufacturing Company
Deseret Manufacturing Company
The Deseret Manufacturing Company was an unsuccessful venture by the LDS Church in the 1850s to process sugar beets into refined sugar. A test factory was established in an area that is now known as Sugar House, Utah.-Background:...

, which was established in a former blacksmith shop in the area. The name came as a suggestion from Margaret McMeans Smoot, the wife of the mayor of Salt Lake City, Abraham O. Smoot
Abraham O. Smoot
Abraham Owen Smoot was a Mormon pioneer, the second mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, mayor of Provo, Utah, and an early supporter of Brigham Young Academy .-Early life:...

.

Sugar House Prison, the first Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 state prison, was located in Sugar House during the 19th century and early 20th century. The prison was closed in 1951 and moved to Draper
Draper, Utah
Draper is a city in Salt Lake and Utah Counties in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Between 1990 and 2000 Draper was Utah's fastest-growing city over 5,000 people . Its population in 1990 was 7,143 and had grown to 25,220 by the 2000 census...

. All of the buildings were torn down and the land was converted to Sugar House Park and Highland High School. In 1928, at the dedication ceremony of the Sprague Library, Mayor John F. Bowman suggested Sugar House from then on be referred to as "South East Salt Lake City." This suggestion was rejected.

During the early 20th century, the corner of 1100 East and 2100 South was known as "furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 row" because three furniture stores were located there. Two have closed and one, Sterling Furniture, remains. Rockwood Furniture closed its doors in 1999 and Granite Furniture closed it's Sugar House location in 2004, after more than 80 years of operation. Granite Furniture still has a West Jordan store at 1475 W. 9000 S.

During the 1980s, Sugar House became run down and crime ridden. Sugar House Park was notorious for drugs
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...

, crime, and illicit rendezvous. During the 1980s the Community Council and the Salt Lake City Planning Dept created a Master Plan for redevelopment. The goal was to prevent the residential areas from being broken up by multifamily units, create new parks and public buildings, manage traffic, and structure business redevelopment. The Community Council led the way for downzoning to stabilize the neighborhood chacter. It also worked with the City to develop parks, repair sidewalks, divert traffic away form residential areas and give the area a new start for families. It soon became the "in" place to live. In 1990, the "Sugar House Center" shopping center was completed. This brought large national chains to the area for the first time.

In 1998 The Commons, a shopping center located just east of the town center ("Granite Block") and adjacent to the "Sugar House Center", was constructed in response to low patronage and has since been the target of both praise and criticism. Supporters of the project argue that The Commons was a boon to the area, citing increased economic growth soon after opening. Detractors argue that the cost of development coupled with competition from major retailers such as Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...

 and Old Navy
Old Navy
Old Navy is an American clothing brand as well as a chain of stores owned by Gap, Inc., with corporate operations in San Francisco and San Bruno, California. It is one of the first major corporations to house headquarters in the new Mission Bay district of San Francisco.Gap, Inc. was run by...

  closed-out many small businesses.

A private effort was started by Doug White to establish a vintage style rail trolley to connect the Sugar House Business District to the TRAX
UTA TRAX
TRAX is a three-line light rail system in Utah's Salt Lake Valley, serving Salt Lake City and several of its suburbs throughout Salt Lake County. The system is operated by the Utah Transit Authority ....

 station on 2100 South in South Salt Lake
South Salt Lake, Utah
South Salt Lake is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, part of the Salt Lake City, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 23,617 at the 2010 census.-History:...

. In December 2006 the Utah Transit Authority
Utah Transit Authority
The Utah Transit Authority operates a public transportation system throughout the Wasatch Front of Utah, United States. It operates fixed route buses, express buses, ski buses, three light rail lines , and a commuter rail line from Salt Lake City to Pleasant View, north of Ogden. UTA is based in...

, Salt Lake City, and South Salt Lake commissioned a Transportation Alternatives Study to examine transit possibilities on the Sugar House Spur. The study determined that a trolley running along a pre-existing rail line was the preferred alternative. In May 2009, Mayor Ralph Becker stated that the project could be complete by 2012, will cost $40 million to $50 million, and that he hopes it is the beginning of a new streetcar system across the city.

In September 2007, the owner of the Granite Block development on the corner of 1100 East and 2100 South, the site of many independent shops, announced plans to redevelop the area. In early 2008 the buildings on the eastern half of Granite Block were demolished in preparation for construction; Craig Mecham claims that the buildings "[were] not safe" due to their age. As replacement, Mecham plans to construct two seven-story buildings, one with office space and one with condos, with ground-level retail. Residents and business owners in the area have shown disapproval of the plans and fear that redevelopment will prevent local businesses from thriving and that big business and chain stores will dominate on and off the court. The fenced-off demolition site remains a scar-like crater and an ongoing source of controversy in the neighborhood. The recession of 2008-09 has at least temporarily put a halt to the project.

On December 1, 2010, developer Craig Mecham submitted an overhauled development plan for what had come to be derisively called the "Sugar Hole", eliminating the originally-planned office space and replacing the condos with apartments. The street-level retail would remain as originally proposed.

Overview

In the past, the Sugar House community council had mostly shunned big box stores, and a cluster of curbside businesses existed along the intersection of 2100 South and Highland Drive (1100 East), including independent clothing and shoe stores, music shops, artist studios, public art galleries, a coffee shop, and an adult interest store called Blue Boutique. However, the recent redevelopment of the Granite Block forced many of these stores to either relocate or close. Zoning changes have created worry that the new development will not be as friendly to local businesses.

"Sugarhood," as it is known by the locals , is home to two shopping centers that collectively feature a ShopKo, a Toys "Я" Us, bookseller Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...

, clothing retailer Old Navy
Old Navy
Old Navy is an American clothing brand as well as a chain of stores owned by Gap, Inc., with corporate operations in San Francisco and San Bruno, California. It is one of the first major corporations to house headquarters in the new Mission Bay district of San Francisco.Gap, Inc. was run by...

, a Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the U.S...

, a Bed Bath & Beyond
Bed Bath & Beyond
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. was formed in 1971 and today operates a chain of domestic merchandise retail stores across United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. They feature mostly medium-ranged, but also a limited selection of high quality, domestic merchandise: items for the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen,...

, a Petco
PETCO
PETCO is a chain of retail stores that offers pet supplies and services such as grooming and dog training. Founded in 1965 and incorporated in Delaware, it is headquartered in San Diego, California...

, several fast food
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...

 and family restaurants, and a 10-screen Cinemark discount cinema. A strip mall
Strip mall
A strip mall is an open-area shopping center where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front...

 is located on the corner of 2100 South and 700 East. The corner of 2100 South and 1300 East features three low-rise office buildings.

Between the shopping center and 2100 South is a small park named Hidden Hollow. Sugar House Park
Sugar House Park
Sugar House Park, or Sugarhouse Park, is located between I-80, 2100 South, 1300 East, and 1700 East in Salt Lake City, Utah. The park is at the heart of the Sugar House neighborhood and is the site of a fireworks show and concert every Independence Day of the United States and a popular sledding...

 is a park located between I-80, 2100 South, 1300 East, and 1700 East.

External links

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