The Hotel Utah, built from 1909-1911, was considered the grandest hotel west of the Mississippi River, and truly it was. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the hotel in conformity to a revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, IL. It reads,
Let my servant George, and my servant Lyman, and my servant John Snider, and others, build a house unto my name, such a one as my servant Joseph shall show unto them, upon the place which he shall show unto them also. And it shall be for a house for boarding, a house that strangers may come from afar to lodge therein; therefore let it be a good house, worthy of all acceptation, that the weary traveler may find health and safety while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord; and the cornerstone I have appointed for Zion. (D&C 124:22-23)
The house built was the Nauvoo House. When they Saints fled to the Great Basin, they felt they needed to comply with the revelation a second time, and thus came the Hotel Utah. In this post, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building will be shown as it existed as the Hotel Utah.
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| Steel frame of the Hotel Utah in 1910, a year before completion |
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| The Hotel Utah in 1911, when it opened. Notice the trolley and the horse and buggy in the lower-right corner |
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| The grandest Hotel west of the Mississippi. The House of the Lord can be seen at left |
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| The Beehive was placed atop the Hotel to symbolize industry, not only of the Latter-day Saints, but of Utah as a whole |
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| A suite in the Hotel Utah. Most suites had either a queen-sized bed or two double beds |
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| The sitting area in one of the suites |
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| The Lobby on 2 June 1967 |
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| The Deseret Store graced the site of where the Hotel Utah stands today. The Spanish wall in twelve feet high |
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