100 Years of Salt Lake City History Now a Pile of Rubble

"It took Craig Mecham much longer than he anticipated to get final approval to demolish the buildings on the Sugar House Granite Block, but finally his dream of "revitalizing" the block is beginning to be realized. "Revitalization," however, is a subjective term, and many local residents who witnessed the amazing improvement of the block, believed the last thing the Granite Block was in need of was a make-over.

By the time most residents and merchants learned about the rezoning approval of the Granite Block, plans had already been set into motion. Once the word spread, first through City Weekly then finally to the larger Utah newspapers, residents and merchants wanted to attempt to save Sugar House. However, in the end The Salt Lake City Council denied petitions and resident efforts to save the block under historic protection status. Subsequently, all local merchants on the block vacated and have since moved elsewhere."