Historic Hotel Utah to Close at End of August

The First Presidency has announced plans to close the Church-owned Hotel Utah 31 August 1987. The hotel has been a landmark in downtown Salt Lake City for seventy-six years.

It is anticipated that over the next few years the hotel will be renovated and converted to an office building for various Church departments and Church affiliated organizations, many of which are presently located throughout the city. The planned interior remodeling will also include meetinghouse facilities with chapel, cultural hall, and classrooms to accommodate the urgent need for ward and stake facilities in the downtown Salt Lake City area. The use of space in the hotel structure will make unnecessary the building of a costly new meetinghouse in the area.

The hotel was completed in 1911 to meet the need for a first-class hostelry in the city. With the construction of a number of new hotels in the city, this need no longer exists, the First Presidency explained. They further explained that the planned conversion is consistent with the growth of the Church, the prudent use of Church resources, the long-range plan for the Church Administration block, and a long-term program under which the Church has withdrawn from competition with private business interests.

The immediate decision, it was noted, was prompted by the need to either make a substantial investment to update the hotel, in a market now adequately served, or to convert it to other uses.

In the conversion process, every feasible effort will be made to preserve the historical integrity and the impressive architecture of the hotel structure, including its lobby. Work is now going forward on the structure’s exterior restoration.