Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Preservation Update: Salt Lake 17th Ward

A couple of blog readers have reached out to me to notify me that the Salt Lake 17th Ward chapel, built in the 1960s, will be leased to the American Heritage School to use for education.

The chapel itself was built in the 1960s and is not my favorite, although I like its use of gothic arches to match the historic stained glass that was moved from the beautiful chapel it replaced. However, with the lease of the chapel, the ward meeting there will be moved to a nearby building. The stained glass is apparently going to stay there while the building is used as a school.

As always, I mostly hope that the stained glass will continue to be used in a place where it can be enjoyed by the public. However, I'd also love to see it remain in a chapel, since it kickstarted a trend of putting first vision windows in other chapels around the valley.

6 comments:

  1. It appears they may keep the stained glass. https://www.ksl.com/article/50345059/historic-church-building-to-become-downtown-salt-lake-citys-newest-school. https://slc.americanheritageschool.org/virtual-tour

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  2. The virtual tour shows nearly complete interior remodel and appears to keep the window. Many interior changes but a few features appear to be retained. https://slc.americanheritageschool.org/virtual-tour

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  3. I've always enjoyed modern architecture and how classic features could be used within it. I've always enjoyed seeing this building. Granted the layout for the entire building was terrible, but I hate to see the few examples of modern architecture the Church has ever built disappear.

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    1. I definitely didn't like the building the first time I saw it, but it has grown on me. If they hadn't put on the steeple, it would have looked much better.

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  4. More info: https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/18/23466809/american-heritage-school-dedicated-by-elder-rasband-in-salt-lake-city

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    1. This is a really interesting article. I didn't know the Church had proactively asked American Heritage to move there. It seems like a move by the Church to keep downtown a friendly place (in line with other moves they've done like City Creek).

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